1,721,041 research outputs found
The grounded theory method to study data-enabled activism against corruption: Between global communicative infrastructures and local activists’ experiences of big data
Full text linkAnti-corruption efforts from the grassroots that make use of digital media to hinder corrupt behaviors are flourishing worldwide. In many cases, these efforts see activists interact with big data along with other types of data. They do this in the framework of broader communicative infrastructure in which activists create, employ, and spread big data to support their struggles. As well, they do so differently, according to a diverse range of activists’ local situations across the world. The article uses examples of anti-corruption efforts in Brazil, India, and Spain to illustrate how the grounded theory method might help researchers to produce knowledge that escapes a universalistic and global vision of datafication detached from activists’ lived and local experiences. The article first briefly outlines what grounded theory is, the main steps in a grounded theory study, and its applications in media and communication studies. It then moves to a broader discussion of two relevant elements of grounded theory – sensitizing concepts and theoretical sampling – in taking into consideration data-enabled activism as an emergent phenomenon that might take many shapes. Then, it considers the emphasis on the situation in which data-enabled activism spreads out through a brief discussion of one relevant development of grounded theory, which is situational analysis, to solve the tension between the global and the local in data-enabled activism
A Media-in-Practices Approach to Investigate the Nexus Between Digital Media and Activists’ Daily Political Engagement
Full text linkIn the past decade, literature flourished that investigated the nexus between social movements and media from a media practice perspective. The article draws on this body of work to show how we might apply practice theory following at least three different approaches on social movements and media: media-as-practices, media-related-practices, and media-in-practices approaches. Then, it proposes an operational definition of practice to investigate social movements and media from a media-in-practices approach, also introducing the method of media practices maps interviews. Finally, the article applies the media-in-practices approach at the analytical level focusing on the practice of coordinating the workflow in the daily grassroots political engagement of Greek, Italian, and Spanish activists
The challenges of anti-corruption technologies from the grassroots
Full text linkThe chapter further discusses Anti-Corruption Technologies (ACTs) through a structured reflection on four critical aspects. First, the chapter explores the symbolic elements of ACTs, highlighting their ability to evoke and embody three distinct democratic imaginaries: monitoring democracy, agonist democracy, and deliberative democracy. Second, the chapter examines the material components integral to ACTs, showing how anti-corruption practitioners combine different technologies, often in complex configurations, and emphasizing that the mere presence of material elements, such as robust Internet infrastructure, does not guarantee the adoption of digital media in anti-corruption efforts. Third, the chapter discusses the recombination of social elements within ACTs, highlighting the collaborative efforts required to construct composite ACTs. It illustrates how different social actors need to harmonise their aspirations, capabilities and anti-corruption perspectives when designing and creating ACTs. In the final section, the chapter synthesises key findings from the previous sections and delves into a nuanced consideration of the long-term sustainability of grassroots anti-corruption efforts using digital media. It considers how the interplay of symbolic, material and social elements in ACTs influences their durability over time, one of the key challenges facing grassroots anti-corruption
Digital Media and Grassroots Anti-Corruption: Contexts, Platforms and Data of Anti-Corruption Technologies Worldwide
No full textDelving into a burgeoning eld of research, this enlightening book utilises case studies from across the globe to explore how digital media is used at the grassroots level to combat corruption. Bringing together an impressive range of experts, Alice Mattoni deftly assesses the design, creation and use of a wide range of anti-corruption technologies
Digital media and technologies in grassroots struggles against corruption
Full text linkThe chapter provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the multifaceted role of digital media in grassroots anti-corruption efforts. The chapter begins with a review of the existing literature on corruption studies and its limited coverage of the grassroots impact of digital media. It highlights the need to shift attention away from instrumental understandings of digital in activists' anti-corruption endeavours and introduces the concept of Anti-Corruption Technologies (ACTs) to this end. Emphasising that ACTs are not one-size-fits-all, the chapter illustrates how they come with different configurations of material, symbolic and social elements. In this regard, the chapter presents a typology of ACTs that takes into account the overarching goals of digital media in grassroots anti-corruption efforts, but at the same time highlights the interplay of material, symbolic and social elements in ACTs. Finally, the chapter previews the contributions of the edited volume, which includes empirically grounded chapters that explore the role of digital media in anti-corruption activism from different perspectives and in different countries around the world
Handbook of Progressive Politics
No full textIn this engaging Handbook, Alice Mattoni brings together an international team of scholars to provide a multifaceted exploration of progressive politics. Contributing authors expertly discuss progressive politics within contemporary global debates, addressing contentious issues and acknowledging the impact of technological advances on the political landscape
ICTs in national and transnational mobilizations
Full text linkThis article deals with the use of ICTs in national and transnational mobilizations. The case study under investigation is the Euro Mayday Parade (EMP) against precarity, which occurred at both the national and transnational level. The articles focus on three aspects of social movement activities. First, organizational processes in which ICTs are used at both the national and transnational level of the EMP in combination with face-to-face interactions, which play an important role in sustaining protest planning. Second, identification processes in which ICTs have a more important impact at the transnational level than at the national level of the EMP. Third, ICTs are not only seen as opportunities but also as challenges that activist groups involved in the EMP had to deal with in the preparation of the EMP. In presenting these results, the article suggests that a comparison between the national and transnational level of the same protest campaign could highlight new aspects in the use of ICTs, which deserve further investigation
Digital media, diasporic groups, and the transnational dimension of anti-regime movements: the case of Hirak in Algeria
Full text linkDrawing on the case of the Hirak movement born in Algeria in 2019, this paper article casts light on the mechanisms of transformation of the anti-regime movement when it comes to the transnational dimension. Based on a qualitative case-study research design, the article first unpacks the transformative dynamics of the movement when it bypasses the context of origins regarding the framing, organizational, and protesting dimensions. Then, the article looks at the effects of such changes against a background characterized by a high political conflict and harsh repression. Findings show that digital media supporting transnational activism have three main effects which that are deeply intertwined: they mix up the sociopolitical cleavages of the country of origin by facilitating the hybridization of actors’ registers and repertoires of action at a global level; they contribute to politicizing specific issues by escalating the levels of contention; and they allow new measures of a regime’s transnational repression
Activists in the Data Stream. The Practices of Daily Grassroots Politics in Southern Europe
Full text linkThe book is about the subtle, daily interactions that Southern European activists have with digital media and digital data during their ordinary political activities, that is, when they are not involved in massive demonstrations in the streets. Beyond the short-lived moments in which they manage to involve hundreds of thousands of people in protests, they are constantly immersed in the daily activities that sustain the engagement of their organizations in the political realm. In order to do so, they speak with other activists, write reports, engage with journalists, and talk with their supporters. These and the other countless actions that activists perform on a daily basis take place thanks to a wide array of media. While some of these media are analogue, most of them are digital: together they immerse activists in what the book conceptualizes as a heterogeneous, ubiquitous, and perpetual data stream with which activists have to come to terms. Casting a light on the agency that activists exert not so much over digital media as such, but over the whole data stream, the book illustrates that such an agency can come in many shapes, bringing along and answering to a variety of challenges depending on who the activists are, what their movement organizations do, and where they are located. Despite these differences, the book identifies one common aspect: no matter where activists are situated, their agency over the data stream is particularly important for them and their movement organizations to perform the practices related to their grassroots political engagement
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