INTERNET AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT ACTION REPERTOIRES

TLDR

The internet has reshaped social movements, exemplified by events such as the Zapatista uprising and the Battle of Seattle, while also confronting the digital divide and enabling movements to operate on a global scale. The article reviews the current literature on social movements’ action repertoires in the internet age. The authors counter naive internet optimism by highlighting several limitations. They find that although the internet offers new opportunities for social and political action, it also presents challenges—sometimes hindering collective action, sometimes diluting its impact, and failing to sustain stable activist ties—so that overall movements have not become more powerful.

Abstract

The Zapatista uprising, which started in 1994, and the ‘Battle of Seattle’ in 1999 are but two iconic examples that are so often used to illustrate how the internet has shaped and is shaping social movements and the tactics they use to pursue their claims. In this article, the authors present the ‘state-of-the-art’ literature on action repertoires of social movements in an internet age. The article builds a strong case in favour of the internet as it has given social movements new and improved opportunities to engage in social and political action. At the same time, a naïve internet-optimism is avoided, by pointing out several limitations. There is the ‘classical’ problem of digital divide. In some cases, the internet has made collective action still not easy enough, while in others it has made it perhaps too easy reducing the final political impact of a certain action. In addition, it seems that the new media are loosing their newness quickly, and more fundamentally are unable to create stable ties between activists that are necessary for sustained collective action. With the internet, social movements have not become a more powerful force in society. But, as political and economical power has gradually moved to the international level, the internet has enabled social movements to follow that transition and operate more globally.