Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Investigate later identity phases <s> This paper examines the process through which Occupy activists came to constitute themselves as a collective actor and the role of social media in this process. The theoretical framework combines Melucci's (1996) theory of collective identity with insights from the field of organizational communication and particularly from the ‘CCO’ strand – short for ‘Communication is Constitutive of Organizing’. This allows us to conceptualize collective identity as an open-ended and dynamic process that is constructed in conversations and codified in texts. Based on interviews with Occupy activists in New York, London and other cities, I then discuss the communication processes through which the movement was drawing the boundaries with its environment, creating codes and foundational documents, as well as speaking in a collective voice. The findings show that social media tended to blur the boundaries between the inside and the outside of the movement in a way that suited its values of inclusiveness and direct participation. Social media users could also follow remotely the meetings of the general assembly where the foundational documents were ratified, but their voices were not included in the process. The presence of the movement on social media also led to conflicts and negotiations around Occupy's collective voice as constructed on these platforms. Thus, viewing the movement as a phenomenon emerging in communication allows us an insight into the efforts of Occupy activists to create a collective that was both inclusive of the 99% and a distinctive actor with its own identity. <s> BIB001 </s> Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> Investigate later identity phases <s> Most activism in connected societies has an online component. Social media accompany corporeal demonstrations, occupations, and protest marches. It is argued that such social media platforms play an increasingly important role when mobilizing across different political positions, coordinating and producing visibility for a political demand. In this article we will revisit 3 activist demands, all saturated by social media practices: (a) inhabitants in southern Stockholm fighting to save a local bathhouse, (b) the 2009 Austrian student protests, and (c) marches in Leipzig and Dresden to block Neo-Nazi marches. The aim is to analyze activist identity negotiations in these social media saturated cases, and contribute to the understanding of activist participation in our digital and connected age. <s> BIB002
While answering RQ1, we also looked at identity as a dynamic process and found that most research on both social and collective identity focused on initial phases, such as expression and construction. Findings from the thematic analysis (RQ2) showed that it is important to study empirically not only how individual, social and collective identities are constructed online but also how they are negotiated over time. Therefore, more research should investigate later phases of the identity process, such as its development, negotiation and maintenance in social groups (social identity) and movements (collective identity) (e.g. BIB001  BIB002 .