Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Towards an integrative approach of identity and networks <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> Towards an integrative approach of identity and networks <s> New forms of networked action and informal collaboration are challenging traditional notions of civil society. Based on the proliferation of new technologies, and spurred by the spread of trans-border delocalized communities and the increasing disillusionment with traditional forms of political organization, civic action is becoming increasingly flexible, temporary, and elusive. This type of nontraditionally organized collective action often stays below the radar of public discourse, unless it is propelled to the spotlight because of international political developments such as the WikiLeaks case (and the related actions by the cyberactivist network Anonymous) and the mass protests in Northern Africa and the Middle East (and the role of social networking tools in these uprisings). In this article, we investigate the interactions and (in)compatibilities of Internet-based networked collective action with institutionalized spaces of policy debate. We begin by characterizing online networked action as an emerging form of organized civil society, focusing on the realm of cyberactivists who are building and using cyber-infrastructure (“grassroots tech groups”). In particular, we examine their values, identity features, and organizational forms. Based on this analysis, we explore two dimensions in which cyberactivism challenges established forms of institutionalized policy debate: the structural dimension and the realm of action repertoires. We ask whether these new forms of civil society are structurally compatible with current multistakeholder governance, and we discuss their repertoires of action with regard to policy advocacy and policy interventions, and thus the level and type of their engagement with governance processes and institutions. <s> BIB002 </s> Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Towards an integrative approach of identity and networks <s> The study of new media use by transnational social movements is central to contemporary investigations of social contention. In order to shed light on the terrain in which the most recent examples of online mobilization have grown and developed, this paper combines the interest in the transnational dynamics of social contention and the exploration of the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) for protest action. In specific terms, the study investigates how early twenty-first century social movement coalitions used Internet tools to build symbolically transnational collective identities. By applying a hyperlink network analysis approach, the study focuses on a website network generated by local chapters of the World Social Forum (WSF), one of the earliest social movement coalitions for global justice. The sample network, selected through snowball sampling, is composed of 222 social forum websites from around the world. The study specifically looks at hyperlinks among social forum web... <s> BIB003 </s> Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Towards an integrative approach of identity and networks <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> BIB004
We conclude this review by proposing an approach that can help addressing the conceptual and methodological directions suggested above. We propose combining and integrating the study of (individual, social and collective) identity and networks to advance our understanding of collective action via CMC. The work of bridging scholars offers several examples in this regard (e.g. BIB001 BIB002 BIB004 BIB003 . These authors show how empirical research on identity and networks can grasp identification processes of online groups and communities (social identity) as well as social movements (collective identity) that are characterised by strong network structures, which also foster individualism (individual identity). Such network structures are not alternative but complementary to social and collective identification processes. Opposing networks to identity and collective action to connective action is counterproductive because they are important dimensions of the same interplay. The adoption of this integrative approach can also advance our understanding of identity as a multifaceted, dynamic concept by providing more theoretical nuance to and synthesis of the multiple definitions and conceptualisations of identity in a multidisciplinary domain, as the one of collective action via CMC. Starting from our vision of identity as a continuum of interrelated dimensions of the self, future research could put forward theoretical models that grapple with the complexity of the identity concept in the study of collective action via CMC. Furthermore, such an approach can guide empirical research that is insightful and helps practitioners understand how activists construct and develop new (individual, social and collective) identities via CMC and use CMC to organise, coordinate and communicate about collective action to achieve social change.