Book contents
- Organization outside Organizations
- Organization outside Organizations
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part 1 Rules, Sanctions, Membership
- Part 2 Organization in and around Markets
- Part 3 Networks and Other Social Relationships
- Part 4 Social Movements and Collective Action
- 14 The Dilemma of Organization in Social Movement Initiatives
- 15 Alternating between Partial and Complete Organization: The Case of Anonymous
- 16 Collective Action through Social Media: Possibilities and Challenges of Partial Organizing
- Part 5 The Partial Organization of Formal Organizations
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
16 - Collective Action through Social Media: Possibilities and Challenges of Partial Organizing
from Part 4 - Social Movements and Collective Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2019
Book contents
- Organization outside Organizations
- Organization outside Organizations
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part 1 Rules, Sanctions, Membership
- Part 2 Organization in and around Markets
- Part 3 Networks and Other Social Relationships
- Part 4 Social Movements and Collective Action
- 14 The Dilemma of Organization in Social Movement Initiatives
- 15 Alternating between Partial and Complete Organization: The Case of Anonymous
- 16 Collective Action through Social Media: Possibilities and Challenges of Partial Organizing
- Part 5 The Partial Organization of Formal Organizations
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter is about how the concept of partial organization can contribute to our understanding of the specificity of organizing collective action through social media. Empirically, it is a story about how a small group of activists via Facebook could raise 9 million Swedish crowns (around 900 000 Euros) in just over a week to a private bank account, and also about the ensuing challenges involved in allocating the funds and packing and distributing the tons of clothes and other items they collected. Theoretically, we want to propose that the undecided order of a social media initiative may hold sufficient power to initiate it, but it may become too strenuous to manage in the long run without legitimate authority. In turn, pressures to incorporate standardized practices of membership, leadership, and monitoring may risk the very basis of the large-scale engagement that the partialness of the social media initiative has enabled.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Organization outside OrganizationsThe Abundance of Partial Organization in Social Life, pp. 334 - 356Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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