Description
Full title: Collective Action Networks Between Online and Offline Interactions
Duration: 01/05/2012 to 30 /06/2015
Total costs: 120,257.47
PAT contribution: 120,257.47
Host Organisation: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento
Project manager: Dr. Elena Pavan
Scientific or technological area: Anthropological and Social Sciences; SPS/07 General Sociology and SPS/11 Sociology of Political Phenomena
Project objectives:
In a context that is increasingly characterised by the pervasiveness of digital communications, REACTION investigated whether and how the use of the Internet redefines the networks and dynamics of citizens' political participation. In the past few years, we have witnessed the multiplication of collective efforts aimed at generating social and political change, even radical ones - as in the case of the Arab Springs or the Occupy! protests, but also mobilisations on gender issues in Italy and around the world. Social media have intercepted the desires for change of citizens and civil society organisations and have provided a new space for participation in which to create networks of collaboration and new visions for an 'other possible world'. REACTION particularly wanted to explore the networks that activists and organisations build using social platforms, making them visible, tracing them 'on paper' and turning them into real objects of study. In order to do this, REACTION has combined knowledge and analysis techniques from different fields, from the social sciences as well as from the study of the interactions between humans and computers, in what has become a path of knowledge creation and continuous learning, which has stimulated the interest of researchers and scholars in Italy and around the world.
State of the art and solutions to the problem and to achieve the objectives that existed prior to the project, and improvements introduced by the project:
REACTION is a project that was born at a time when attention to the democratic potential of social media reached its peak - particularly following the major protests of 2011 in Italy and around the world. In this context, REACTION created a space for multidisciplinary convergence and elaborated, and then progressively redefined during the activities, a realistic way of 'looking' at digital participation networks, which balances the abundance of digital data with the criticalities related to their use (especially in terms of accessibility and contextualisation in the 'off-line' dynamics). In this way, it combined a positive approach to the use of technologies for participation (particularly widespread at the time the project was born) with a more critical approach, which emphasised that not all digital tools always contribute in the same way to citizen participation.
Work organisation:
REACTION was conceived and led by Dr Elena Pavan, under the scientific supervision of Prof. Mario Diani. The project was developed on the basis of a highly innovative theoretical and methodological framework that combined, in successive stages, a systematic literature review in various fields of the humanities and computational sciences with the analysis of social networks, theories of movements and political participation, the study of digital communications and the testimonies of activists collected through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews.
Achievements:
REACTION laid the foundations for a systematic theoretical reflection on the link between communication technologies and citizens' political participation, but also for carrying out empirical investigations combining different techniques: from the analysis of social networks to the study of digital data and in-depth interviews. In the years following the project, REACTION's approach has been further implemented and refined, becoming part of new research projects that Dr Pavan conducts in prestigious research institutions (currently at the Scuola Normale Superiore).
Impact:
REACTION has contributed to creating a new knowledge and awareness of what the added value of different tools (websites, or the different social platforms) can be for experiencing democracy today. REACTION's theoretical and methodological framework has given rise to a series of scientific contributions that have been disseminated both nationally and internationally, and that have become a systematic part of the debate on the nexus between technology and democracy.
Keywords: Internet, political participation, collective action, social media, social networks
References: dott.ssa Elena Pavan at the Institute of Human and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore (piazza degli Strozzi 1, Florence) mail: elena.pavan[at]sns.it"