THE LOGIC OF CONNECTIVE ACTION

TLDR

Large‑scale protests increasingly use digital media beyond simple messaging, ranging from small informal groups to established advocacy organizations, contrasting with traditional, organization‑managed action models. The article investigates how communication reshapes organizational dynamics, arguing that large‑scale action networks must be understood through two logics: collective action and connective action. It introduces three ideal‑type models of large‑scale action networks that illustrate these logics. The study finds that digital media leave core dynamics unchanged in collective‑action networks but alter them in connective‑action networks.

Abstract

From the Arab Spring and los indignados in Spain, to Occupy Wall Street (and beyond), large-scale, sustained protests are using digital media in ways that go beyond sending and receiving messages. Some of these action formations contain relatively small roles for formal brick and mortar organizations. Others involve well-established advocacy organizations, in hybrid relations with other organizations, using technologies that enable personalized public engagement. Both stand in contrast to the more familiar organizationally managed and brokered action conventionally associated with social movement and issue advocacy. This article examines the organizational dynamics that emerge when communication becomes a prominent part of organizational structure. It argues that understanding such variations in large-scale action networks requires distinguishing between at least two logics that may be in play: The familiar logic of collective action associated with high levels of organizational resources and the formation of collective identities, and the less familiar logic of connective action based on personalized content sharing across media networks. In the former, introducing digital media do not change the core dynamics of the action. In the case of the latter, they do. Building on these distinctions, the article presents three ideal types of large-scale action networks that are becoming prominent in the contentious politics of the contemporary era.