Collective action 2.0: the impact of social media on collective action

Collective Action 2.0: The Impact of Social Media on Collective Actionprovides a balanced look into how ICTs leverage and interact with collective action through avoiding technological determinism, utopianism, and fundamentalism, which impacts the current discourse. Recent events in different authoritarian regimes, such as Iran and Egypt, have drawn global attention to a developing phenomenon in collective action: people tend to organize through different social media platforms for political protest and resistance. This phenomenon describes a change in social structure and behavior tied to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Social media platforms have been used to leverage collective action, which, in some cases, has arguable led to political revolution. The phenomenon also indicates that the way information is organized affects the organization of social structures with which it interacts. The phenomenon also has another side, namely the use of social media for activist suppression, state surveillance, or for the mobilization of collective action towards undesirable ends. Analyzes social media and collective action in a deep and balanced mannerPresents an account avoiding technological determinism, utopianism, and fundamentalismConsiders the underlying theory behind quick-paced social mediaTakes an interdisciplinary approach that will resonate with all those interested in social media and collective action, regardless of field specialty Shaked Spier graduated in Information Science and Gender Studies at the Humboldt University, Berlin. His research and writing looks at a variety of topics related to the connection between information communication technologies (ICTs) and society, information ethics, digital policies, and digital rights using interdisciplinary approaches. To date, he works as project manager in diverse information technology (IT) projects. Politically, he volunteers as spokesperson of the workgroup on internet policy, digital society, and digital rights in the German leftwing party DIE LINKE and cooperates with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in this field.