After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement

Networked social movements (NSMs) are hybrid forms of social organization that rely on the platforms of the Internet to connect multiple individuals and groups to address a social justice issue. I mapped the communication infrastructure of the Occupy Movement from July 2011 to June 2013 to demonstra...

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Main Author: Joan Donovan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2018-01-01
Series:Social Media + Society
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117750720
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author Joan Donovan
author_facet Joan Donovan
author_sort Joan Donovan
collection DOAJ
description Networked social movements (NSMs) are hybrid forms of social organization that rely on the platforms of the Internet to connect multiple individuals and groups to address a social justice issue. I mapped the communication infrastructure of the Occupy Movement from July 2011 to June 2013 to demonstrate how changes in protesters’ forms of communication reflected transformations in the organization of the movement and its capacity to mobilize participants. Through ethnography, I show how internal and external pressures—the high density of connections through social media, a desire to coordinate across locations, and police raids on encampments—led to the development of a virtual organization, called InterOccupy. InterOccupy is a communication platform owned and operated by participants in the Occupy Movement. InterOccupy took infrastructure building as a political strategy to ensure the movement endured beyond the police raids on the encampments. I conclude that NSMs create virtual organizations when there are routine and insurmountable failures in the communication milieu, where the future of the movement is at stake. My research follows the Occupy Movement ethnographically to understand what happens after the keyword.
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spelling doaj.art-1f7bc8c2f0c9404e98d8a3a3f40523972022-12-22T00:23:54ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512018-01-01410.1177/2056305117750720After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy MovementJoan DonovanNetworked social movements (NSMs) are hybrid forms of social organization that rely on the platforms of the Internet to connect multiple individuals and groups to address a social justice issue. I mapped the communication infrastructure of the Occupy Movement from July 2011 to June 2013 to demonstrate how changes in protesters’ forms of communication reflected transformations in the organization of the movement and its capacity to mobilize participants. Through ethnography, I show how internal and external pressures—the high density of connections through social media, a desire to coordinate across locations, and police raids on encampments—led to the development of a virtual organization, called InterOccupy. InterOccupy is a communication platform owned and operated by participants in the Occupy Movement. InterOccupy took infrastructure building as a political strategy to ensure the movement endured beyond the police raids on the encampments. I conclude that NSMs create virtual organizations when there are routine and insurmountable failures in the communication milieu, where the future of the movement is at stake. My research follows the Occupy Movement ethnographically to understand what happens after the keyword.https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117750720
spellingShingle Joan Donovan
After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
Social Media + Society
title After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
title_full After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
title_fullStr After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
title_full_unstemmed After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
title_short After the #Keyword: Eliciting, Sustaining, and Coordinating Participation Across the Occupy Movement
title_sort after the keyword eliciting sustaining and coordinating participation across the occupy movement
url https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117750720
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