Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Shed light on the controversial role of CMC in identity processes <s> This work sketches out an exploration on some challenges that digital environments pose to social movements studies. While transformations in the technology available for communication among movement networks quite obviously reconfigure their organisational patterns, the current use of the notion of collective identity, less obviously, is also called into question. Drawing on a dataset of tweets collected during the early stage of the worldwide Occupy protest wave, the outcomes of different possibilities of analysis are presented. The discussion of the results challenges various aspects of recent trends in Social Movements Theory, including the persistent distinction between organisational and identitary elements. A socio–semiotic observation is then acknowledged: to a certain extent, in contemporary protests, signifiers have acquired distinctive importance with respect to signified, in mediating the assemblage of contentious networks. The notion of 'social movement brand' is consequently suggested as fitting these phenomenon's better than the classical one of collective identity. <s> BIB001 </s> Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Shed light on the controversial role of CMC in identity processes <s> The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which social media and networked practices make possible innovative forms of collective identity. We briefly review the literature on social movements and ‘collective identity’, and show the tension between different positions stressing either organization or culture, the personal or the collective, aggregative or networking logics. We argue that the 15M (indignados) network-movement in Spain demands conceptual and methodological innovations. Its rapid emergence, endurance, diversity, multifaceted development and adaptive capacity, posit numerous theoretical and methodological challenges. We show how the use of structural and dynamic analysis of interaction networks (in combination with qualitative data) is a valuable tool to track the shape and change of what we term the ‘systemic dimension’ of collective identities in network-movements. In particular, we introduce a novel method for synchrony detection in Facebook activity to identify the distributed, yet integrated, coordinated activity behind collective identities. Applying this analytical strategy to the 15M movement, we show how it displays a specific form of systemic collective identity we call ‘multitudinous identity’, characterized by social transversality and internal heterogeneity, as well as a transient and distributed leadership driven by action initiatives. Our approach attends to the role of distributed interaction and transient leadership at a mesoscale level of organizational dynamics, which may contribute to contemporary discussions of collective identity in network-movements. <s> BIB002
In response to RQ2, we also looked at how CMC influences identity processes and found extensive research on the topic. These studies showed that, starting with the 2011 wave of large-scale mobilisations, CMC has changed the construction, maintenance and negotiation of both social and collective identities. However, we found divergent results on whether CMC supports or constrains identity processes. While some scholars highlighted CMC's limited success in collective identity formation due to inappropriate communication protocols, organisational fragmentation and routinisation, others found that CMC enables symbolic practices and network ties that express and build both social and collective identities. Future research in all perspectives should address these contradictions by acknowledging the changing nature of social and collective identities during collective action via CMC. CMC's intended role should be not only instrumental (e.g. organising mobilisation) but also symbolic (e.g. expressing and communicating identity processes). The work of bridging scholars can offer several examples in this regard: They have often adopted definitions of identity that simultaneously combine theories on identity, social movements, networks and media structures to tackle the changing nature of online collective identities (e.g. BIB001 BIB002 . However, although some definitions of identity might appear more novel than others (e.g. multitudinous identity, connective identity), future research should resist the urge to coin new definitions that cannot really produce additional value.