Introduction: Sociolinguistics and computer-mediated communication

This theme issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics comprises a number of empirical studies focusing on a range of ways in which people use language in computer-mediated communication (CMC). This introduction contextualizes the contributions to this issue by providing an outline of linguistically focused CMC studies. A critique of the research on the 'language of CMC' is given, and aspects of CMC research from a sociolinguistic viewpoint are presented: the move from the 'language of CMC' to socially situated computer-mediated discourse; its grounding in the notion of online community; and the application of sociolinguistic methodologies to its study. It is argued that CMC provides a new empirical arena for various research traditions in sociolinguistics; conversely, sociolinguistics can contribute to the interdisciplinary theorizing of CMC by demonstrating the role of language use and linguistic variability in the construction of interpersonal relationships and social identities on the Internet.     

Process‐Oriented Sampling

Using the concepts of “duration” and “temporal patterns,” this paper discusses how key steps during sampling change, if researchers take temporality seriously: When defining cases, scholars have to select a suitable temporal scale and reflect on possible changes of boundaries and properties of cases. When defining the population or field, researchers need to set an appropriate time frame and define periods within this time frame to be analyzed. When selecting the actual cases for analysis, researchers have to choose an appropriate sampling procedure, decide upon relevant periods of analysis as well as the number of points in time to be analyzed.     

Unpacking the effects of repression: the evolution of Islamist repertoires of contention in Egypt after the fall of President Morsi

The military coup against president Morsi in July 2013 sparked the largest wave of Islamist mobilization in Egypt’s modern history. As the ousted president’s supporters took to the street in what became known as the ‘anti-coup’ movement, they were met with fierce repression. This article retraces the contentious dynamics in the summer of 2013 in a nested research design and with a focus on contentious repertoires. Drawing on data for over 2400 protest events and debunking the myth of a swift defeat of the anti-coup protests, we show how repression, besides affecting protest levels, markedly changed the quality of contention. Most notably, three transformative events involving massive repressive violence impacted on protest spaces, tactics and timing: rather than binary notions of escalation vs. demobilization, adaptive mechanisms of decentralization, diversification and substitution dominated the anti-coup movement’s reaction to repression. Centralized mass protests evolved into smaller, more flexible, and highly decentralized forms that were better fit to skirt the regime’s repression efforts. Our findings have important implications for the theorization of the protest–repression-nexus. They prompt scholars to conceive of repression and backlash as multi-layered phenomena and study their effects in a disaggregate framework.