Network social capital as an outcome of social movement mobilization: Using the position generator as an indicator of social network diversity

In the social mobility literature, the position generator (PG) has been used to examine the relationship between the structural location of individuals, and outcomes such as obtaining a high status job. Diversity of occupational ties (as measured by the PG) is also a significant predictor of an individual's cultural capital. A great deal of work has also been done in the field of social movements examining the relationship between networks and mobilization. However, only limited attention has been given to the position generator in this literature. Also, while past research has demonstrated that prior network ties to activists is one of the most important predictors of current activism, relatively little research has been devoted to examining network structure as an outcome of activism. The present paper builds upon these insights by utilizing data collected with the position generator on a sample of environmental movement members, and examining the relationship between individual activism (as an independent variable) and diversity of occupational ties (as a dependent variable). The result of key theoretical significance is that those who are more active in the environmental movement develop a greater diversity of occupational ties to other environmentalists. Results suggest that this process occurs over time. These findings provide evidence that social capital (as indicated by network diversity) is one outcome of social movement mobilization.     

What is gained and what is left to be done when content analysis is added to network analysis in the study of a social movement: Twitter use during Gezi Park

As social movements relying on the weak ties found in social networks have spread around the world, researchers have taken several approaches to understanding how networks function in such instances as the Arab Spring. While social scientists have primarily relied on survey or content analysis methodology, network scientists have used social network analysis. This research combines content analysis with the automated techniques of network analysis to determine the roles played by those using Twitter to communicate during the Turkish Gezi Park uprising. Based on a network analysis of nearly 2.4 million tweets and a content analysis of a subset of 5126 of those tweets, we found that information sharing was by far the most common use of the tweets and retweets, while tweets that indicated leadership of the movement constituted a small percentage of the overall number of tweets. Using automated techniques, we experimented with coded variables from content analysis to compute the most discriminative tokens and to predict values for each variable using only textual information. We achieved 0.61 precision on identifying types of shared information. Our results on detecting the position of user in the protest and purpose of the tweets achieved 0.42 and 0.33 precision, respectively, illustrating the necessity of user cooperation and the shortcomings of automated techniques. Based on annotated values of user tweets, we computed similarities between users considering their information production and consumption. User similarities are used to compute clusters of individuals with similar behaviors, and we interpreted average activities for those groups.     

Dissenting families and social movement abeyance: the transmission of neo-fascist frames in postwar Italy

What explains the re‐emergence of social movements after abeyance? Based on interviews with activists who belonged to the Italian neo‐fascist movement of the late 1960s to early 1980s, this article documents the preservation of a neo‐fascist mobilization potential after 1945 through the parent‐child transmission of frames. This process involved learning through talk, action and text. Both the nature of family frames and their congruence with movement frames depended on whether parents were right‐wing or non‐partisan. Research on abeyance should include the family among institutions that uphold continuity between waves of contention in pluralist regimes.     

Reclaiming,proclaiming, and maintaining collective identity in the #YoSoy132 movement in Mexico: an examination of digital frontstage and backstage activism through social media and instant messaging platforms

This article starts from the recognition that digital social movements studies have progressively disregarded collective identity and the importance of internal communicative dynamics in contemporary social movements, in favour of the study of the technological affordances and the organizational capabilities of social media. Based on a two-year multimodal ethnography of the Mexican #YoSoy132 movement, the article demonstrates that the concept of collective identity is still able to yield relevant insights into the study of current movements, especially in connection with the use of social media platforms. Through the appropriations of social media, Mexican students were able to oppose the negative identification fabricated by the PRI party, reclaim their agency and their role as heirs of a long tradition of rebellion, generate collective identification processes, and find ‘comfort zones’ to lower the costs of activism, reinforcing their internal cohesion and solidarity. The article stresses the importance of the internal communicative dynamics that develop in the backstage of social media (Facebook chats and groups) and through instant messaging services (WhatsApp), thus rediscovering the pivotal linkage between collective identity and internal communication that characterized the first wave of research on digital social movements. The findings point out how that internal cohesion and collective identity are fundamentally shaped and reinforced in the social media backstage by practices of ‘ludic activism’, which indicates that social media represent not only the organizational backbone of contemporary social movements, but also multifaceted ecologies where a new, expressive and humorous ‘communicative resistance grammar’ emerges.     

Hope for Haiti: An analysis of Facebook and Twitter usage during the earthquake relief efforts

The Haitian earthquake devastated the small island of Hispaniola, leaving thousands dead and billions of dollars in property damage. The earthquake also ignited a firestorm of social media use by organizations. By applying framing theory to the analysis of Facebook posts and tweets sent by nonprofits and media organizations, this study discovered differences between nonprofits and media in terms of social media use. Nonprofits and media organizations used information dissemination and disclosure effectively, but failed to capitalize on the innate two-way communication nature of social media.     

The importance of group identity processes in involvement in social movement organizations: the case of Attac France and Germany

This research evaluates the relative and absolute importance of group identity processes in an individual's decision to become and remain active in a social movement organization (SMO). Mainly through interview research with the members of Attac Germany and France, I discover that the presence of a comfortable and communicative group atmosphere is a necessary, but insufficient, condition for movement activity. Individuals are primarily involved in SMOs because they want to change policy and public opinion or to give meaning to their lives. However, this does not imply that the activists devalue communal bonds and a welcoming group atmosphere. Rather, they take both as a prerequisite for engagement. Yet, rifts and atmospheric disruptions can be a sufficient cause for which people leave an organization. In particular, those members who seek policy change are quick to desert a group once it is shattered by internal disharmony.     

Polarized public opinion responding to corporate social advocacy: Social network analysis of boycotters and advocators

Despite growing attention to corporate social-political advocacy, little is known about how publics mobilize and establish relationships in social media when firms are involved in hot-button issues. Using the social network approach, this study examines a network structure which emerged around boycotting and advocating for Starbucks and Budweiser when these two brands responded to President Donald Trump’s immigration ban executive order in 2017. The study identified three unique characteristics in the boycotters’ networks. The boycotters appeared not only in the aggregated brand boycotting networks, but also in the advocators’ networks. In addition, boycotters in Budweiser and Starbucks networks were engaged in boycotting other brands or organizations which were opposed to Republicans or President Trump’s policy. Finally, the network of boycotters was very dense and highly connected among subgroups while that of advocators was sparse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Bridging semantic and social network analyses: the case of the hashtag #precisamosfalarsobreaborto (we need to talk about abortion) on Twitter

This paper presents an innovative method design that combines semantic with social network analysis in order to measure opinion leadership in social networking sites in a more accurate way. We used this method to assess the efficacy of the TPM magazine in disseminating its pro-decriminalization of abortion frames (contained in the cover story of its 148th issue) that were associated with the hashtag #precisamosfalarsobreaborto (a trending topic in November 2014). The data were collected from Twitter through the data-mining application NodeXL (N?=?1010). A content analysis of a random sample was carried out (N?=?376; margin of error?=?4%; confidence interval?=?95%; Krippendorff’s alpha?=?0.661). Using the software Gephi, we plotted the data on a socio-semantic graph, which indicates that (a) the border of the social network does not represent a semantic gap with the center and (b) despite the network being extremely like-minded, one of its hubs appears to be what we conceptualize as a hotspot of contestation. We discuss how future research may replicate and refine our methodology to handle population datasets and big data as well.     

Capitalism as a social movement: the corporate and neoliberal reconstructions of the American political economy in the twentieth century

This paper examines the ways in which social movements based among leading capitalists have remade the US political economy. In the first part we examine the period from the late 1880s through the 1920s, sketching the emergence of a hegemonic movement that accomplished the re-embedding of capitalist social relations during the corporate reconstruction of American capitalism. In the second, we examine the disembedding of capitalist relations during the contemporary neoliberal era. The paper makes three major arguments. First, capitalists not just subaltern groups resort to collective action outside of institutional channels of authority and power. Second, during organic crises the movements of capitalists will join with movements of subaltern groups to create hegemonic projects, whose disparate supporters are articulated by discourses. Third, the concept of ‘social movement’ itself should be understood as a constituent part of a larger social formation and not sealed off from features of capitalism and the state. Indeed, hegemonic social movements have reconstructed the larger landscape that social movement theory normally takes for granted as a background. In applying this approach to the contested topic of neoliberalism, we argue that it was not primarily a class-based coup, a policy, ideology, or culture shift but a discourse that united elements of the left and the right as well as a ‘historic bloc’ with homes in both major parties. During both periods subaltern groups played an important role in the hegemonic movements that created corporate capitalism and later neoliberalism.     

The health and social impact of Blood Donors Associations: A Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis

Although research on blood donation abounds, no studies have yet attempted to estimate the socio-economic value generated from Blood Donors Associations (BDAs).To fill this gap, the authors ran a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis on four units of the largest BDA in Italy, the Association of Voluntary Italian Blood Donors (“Avis”).This study used multiple methods for data collection and analysis. A systematic literature review helped the identification of proper financial proxies to highlight the economic value of the social and health impacts experienced by Avis members. A focus group with key informants gathered their views on the areas of impact selected for the analysis: early detection of diseases, adoption of healthier lifestyles, social capital, human capital, personal satisfaction and reinforcement of a ‘giving culture’.Primary data collection involved (a) an Activity Based Costing analysis (b) a self-reported questionnaire to 1.066 BDA members and unassociated donors enabling the comparison of the blood donation experience of these two groups. The SROI analysis resulted in four positive ratios, varying between €1.70 and €13.80.This study contributes to the knowledge on impact evaluations in TSOs. Policy implications refer to BDAs deserving financial and material support for their capacity to generate positive social impacts.     

Mapping the two levels of digital divide: Internet access and social network site adoption among older adults in the USA

Older adults have increasingly adopted Internet and social network sites (SNSs), but little communication scholarship has explored systematic differences in access within this population. Using a nationally representative sample of Americans over the age of 50 years from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study, we examine Internet access (N?=?18,851) and SNS adoption patterns (N?=?869) among this sample and explore how these patterns vary by age. Regarding Internet access, results suggest that while the gender divide has reversed in favor of women, older adults who are economically, socioculturally, or physically disadvantaged are less likely to have reliable Internet access. In addition, the view that the various divides in Internet access are less of a concern for those who are younger is only partially supported, as some access-related divides do not vary by age or even decrease with age. For SNS adoption, we found that access to technological resources (diversity of online activities) positively predicts SNS use. Moreover, SNS users are more likely to be younger, female, widowed, and homemakers, perhaps because these individuals are more motivated to use SNSs to complement or compensate for their existing social status. These findings reveal unique challenges and motivations in relation to Internet access and SNS adoption patterns across the later life span.     

Linguistic affinity and achieved geographic mobility: evidence from the recognition of non-national social work qualifications in Ireland and the UK1

This article presents statistics from the national authorities of two EU countries responsible for the recognition of non-national social work qualifications: Ireland and the United Kingdom. This material is drawn upon in an attempt to identify the role of linguistic affinity in relation to the geographic mobility of social work graduates.