De virtuele strijd tegen de globalisering: de rol van het internet in het ontstaan van de 'anti-globaliserings' beweging

In: Van oude vragen en nieuwe media: een stand van zaken van media studies in Vlaanderen en Nederland; Tijdschrift voor Sociologie, Volume 23, Issue 3-4

Abstract

Collective action and social movement protest has become commonplace in our 'demonstration-democracy' and no longer surprises the media or the public. However, this was not the case with the recent anti-globalisation protests that attracted demonstrators from countries all over the world. The battles of Seattle, Washington, Prague and Genoa, with an unforeseen mixture of nationalities and movements, became world news. Interestingly, the new media seemed to play a crucial role in the organisation of these global-protests. This article attempts to map this movement-in-progress via an analysis of the websites of anti-neoliberal globalisation organisations. It examines the contribution of these sites to three different conditions that establish movement formation; collective identity; actual mobilisation and a network of organisations. This, ongoing, explorative research indicates signs of an integration of different organizations involved and attributes an important role to the Internet. However, while both our methodology and subject are evolving rapidly, conclusions, as our initial results show, must be tempered.