ECPR 2017

I participated at the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference at the University of Oslo last week, presenting a pet project paper with my great friend Noomi Weinryb from Södertörn University College in the panel From Helping Hands to Molotov Cocktails – Understanding Citizens’ Miscellaneous Reactions to the Refugee Crisis.

This paper, The prevalence and durability of emotional enthusiasm: connective action and charismatic authority in the 2015 European refugee crisis, is basically a first attempt to make sense of a data set that has been generated from a large number of Facebook posts from groups and pages associated with coordinating volunteer work during the refugee crisis in 2015. What we do in this paper is that we are taking a look at how the use of a certain type of emotional language - emotional enthusiasm, we call it with a term borrowed from Paulo Gerbaudo - plays out in traditional civil society organisations as well as ad-hoc networks. We can see a clear boom-and-bust cycle in the Facebook activity of the ad-hoc or self-organising networks, where the activity is much higher in September than in October or November of 2015, whereas the level of activity in the civil society organisations is on a lower level but rather stable. But emotional enthusiasm remains as a proportionally important feature of Facebook posts in both organisational types.

At the conference we made contact with several other researchers who are working specifically with the refugee crisis in different ways, and we have several good ideas - not least because of good comments from our discussant Pascal König and the panel audience - how to take this forward.

Abstract

Departing from previous research on digital action networks, this paper approaches the spread and emotional contagion of digital activism slightly differently, looking for it not necessarily inside the social movement itself, but rather outside it. By questioning the implicit assumption that the spread and emotional contagion of digital activism is contained only in the context of social movements, we explore emotional enthusiasm also in the social media engagement of other types of contemporaneous civil society organizations, viewing it as a manifestation of Weber’s concept of charismatic authority. Empirically, we study voluntary engagement and mobilization on Facebook in Sweden during the refugee crisis of the fall of 2015. In a mixed-method content analysis of 59 Facebook groups and pages, we trace the use of emotional markers in posts during the period September-November 2015. Our findings indicate that the prevalence of emotional enthusiasm outside of social movement, and the lack of durability of it both in organizations and in networks, points to the lack of stability that charismatic authority entails. As charismatic authority becomes institutionalized as a legitimate and predominant manner of organizing through social media, this may have large scale implications for societal organizing at large. The paper indicates that emotional enthusiasm in the form of charismatic authority not only provides democratic opportunities for protest and contention, but, given its emotional contagion, may also but democratic procedures and respect for bureaucratic structures at risk.

Nordmedia 2017

I participated in the Nordmedia 2017 conference last week with a paper titled "Online lurking and offline action: young people, social media, and (non-)participation." coming from the project "Political participation among young people – from party democrats to social media activists?" where I am cooperating with political scientists Hanna Bäck and Malena Rosén Sundström of Lund university and psychologist Emma Bäck of University of Gothenburg. The project is now in its third and last year and we are in the output phase, so to speak. I presented the paper in the Temporary Working Group Onlife: Digital Media Sociology in a Digital Cross-Platform World and got some excellent comments from Jacob Ørmen of the University of Copenhagen as well as from the audience. 

I also had the pleasure of chairing the Political Communication division together with Christina Neumayer of the IT University of Copenhagen, where we had a set of really great papers and discussions. Christina and myself are staying on as chairs over the next Nordmedia conference, which will be held in August 2019 at Malmö university, and we hope that we'll get as good proposals for that conference as we got for this one. 

Abstract

Online lurking and offline action: young people, social media, and (non-)participation.

Research has described political participation as becoming ever more individualised (eg Bennett & Segerberg, 2013). This has been argued to be connected to the general individualisation of society, but also to affordances made possible by new media. One line of research explains political participation combining selective benefits (Olson, 1965), psychological factors (Klandermans & van Stekelburg, 2013) and social incentives (Cialdini, 2009). However, it is not clear how social media and its effects on information, discussion, and peer pressure influences the socialisation of young people and decisions to participate on a micro level.

This paper uses focus group interviews to uncover mechanisms underpinning (non-)participation in relation to social media use and social incentives. It is based on eight focus group interviews with 59 Swedish participants aged 16-25. The design includes four focus groups comprised by high school students; two groups with university students, one group with students in a post-secondary non-university education programme, and one group with people enrolled in a labour market initiative. The choice of method allows for young people to discuss things with peers in a safe setting, teasing out issues that would perhaps not come out in a one-on-one meeting with an adult researcher, or in a survey with pre-formulated questions. In contrast to digital methods, it also allows for the collection of information on cross-platform behaviour and lurking, as well as information on offline conversations. The focus group discussions evolve around the political content in social media, news, peer pressure, and (non-)participation). One focal point is news, discussions and (non-)participation in relation to the 2015 European refugee crisis, which saw a high level of mobilisation as well as news coverage and public discussion among the Swedish population.

The interviews are transcribed and analysed using micro-interlocutor analysis (Onwuegbuzie et al, 2009), thereby placing a higher focus on the dynamic aspects of the focus group interview than is usually done.

A preliminary analysis of the material reveals a complex situation regarding the interaction between social media use, peer pressure, offline discussions and participation. Participants have in general a negative view of young people as uninformed, volatile, and highly impressable. Political discussions in social media are generally avoided as they are deemed to be pointless and overly aggressive (cf. Gustafsson, 2012). Instead, political discussions are preferably held offline with close peers. News are to a very high degree consumed through social media (in complex interaction with the discussions framing topics and stories), and there is a large insecurity concerning what is fake news and what is proper journalisms and trustable facts. Active participation is heavily connected to personal influences by close friends.

References

Bennett, L. W. & Segerberg, A. (2013). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and Practice, 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Gustafsson, Nils, 2012. The Subtle Nature of Facebook Politics. Swedish Social Media Users and Political Participation, New Media & Society, 14(2): 1111-1127.

Klandermans, B., & van Stekelenburg, J. (2013). ‘Social movements and the dynamics of collective action’ in Huddy, L. – Sears D. O. – Levy, J. S. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Olson, M. (1965). The Logic of Collective Action. Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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Onwuegbuzie, A., Dickinson, W, Leech, N. & Zoran, A., 2009. A Qualitative Framework for Collecting and Analyzing Data in Focus Group Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 8(3): 1-21.

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Wahlgren Symposium on Media, Democracy and Globalisation II

Min doktorandtjänst finansierades av Wahlgrenska stiftelsen (tack igen!) och ingick i ett löst sammanknutet projekt där totalt fem tjänster ingick. Förutom jag själv var det även Tina Askanius i medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (som jag skrev en hyfsat lyckad artikel ihop med), Elisabet Björklund i filmvetenskap, Emilia Ljungberg i pressvetenskap och Zeenath Hasan på K3 i Malmö. Samarbetet oss emellan har varit roligt och givande om än i skiftande form.

En av slutpunkterna för projektet var det andra Wahlgrensymposiet, som ägde rum i fredags den 15 november på Pufendorfinstitutet i Lund. Det första ordnade vi i november 2008 med fem inbjudna talare. Min gäst var Markus Prior - en ytterst trevlig bekantskap!

Även denna gång hade vi inbjudna talare - och trots deras olika forskningsintressen blev det en intim och mycket givande dag som spände från feministisk film till bloggande backpackers.

Anastasia Kavada från University of Westminster var först ut för att presentera ett pågående projekt om Occupy-rörelsen med empiriskt material bland annat från Occupy London Stock Exchange och Occupy London. MYCKET intressant om motsättningen mellan strävan att ha en organisation byggd på demokratisk deltagarjämlikhet och nödvändigheten av att presentera ett sammanhållet budskap t ex i mediekontakter, och intressanta skillnader i hur de två olika eventen organiserades kommunikationsmässigt. I min avhandling är jag själv inne på hur nätverksaktivism (med uttalade jämlikhetsideal) lik förbannat organiseras i hierarkier och maktcentra. Jag tror att det är oundvikligt (vilket iofs redan Michels hävdade), men jag ser mycket fram emot kommande resultat från kavadas nya projekt.

Nishant Shah från Centre of Internet & Society, Bangalore, missade jag tyvärr eftersom jag tog hand om lunchcateringen, men det verkar ha varit en spännande presentation: Nishant berättade om Indiens lika ambitiösa som eventuellt misslyckade projekt för "e-literacy", vilket i stort sett tycks innebära "förmåga att hantera Microsoftprodukter i arbetet".

Jennie Germann Molz från College of the Holy Cross talade om internets betydelse för turismen och mindes nostalgiskt sina dagar som backpacker och det tidiga resebloggandet, som oundvikligen tycks ha övergått i mer kommersiella former, medan sociala nätverkssajter har övertagit behovet att dela med sig av reseupplevelser till vänner och familj.

Christie Milliken från Brock University avslutade med en fantastisk presentation om ytterst explicita feministiska "själv-hälso-filmer" i 1970-talets USA. Vi fick se tre klipp med kvinnor som inför publik demonstrerade hur man gör en gynundersökning på sig själv med hjälp av spekulum, spegel och ficklampa. Milliken berättade hur hennes studenter brukar ta mycket mer intryck av dessa filmer än av något annat hon visar av 1970-talsdokumentärer - kanske främst eftersom nakenhet och kön idag är så intimt förknippat med pornografi.

Sammanfattningsvis var det en mycket lyckad tillställning!

Den andra och avslutande slutpunkten för Wahlgrenprojektet kommer förhoppningsvis att bli ett temanummer av Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift där vi alla fem skriver på svenska om vår forskning. Mer om detta senare!

Min presentation på Ungdomsstyrelsens rikskonferens

Jag deltog i ett seminarium på Ungdomsstyrelsens rikskonferens om sociala medier och ungas inflytande tillsammans med Pia Brundin och Tobias Olsson idag. Jag pratade om vilka möjligheter som sociala medier - trots allt! - innebär för det politiska deltagandet i samhället och om att vi kan se ganska positivt på framtidens demokrati.

Här är min presentation: http://prezi.com/kay9cvpdymmx/underbara-dagar-framfor-oss-politiskt-deltagande-och-sociala-medier/

At the IR11

I'm at the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference in Gothenburg. I am really excited, especially for getting the opportunity to meet so many of my old OIISDP 2009 co-conspirers. We will hold a roundtable session to promote (there, I said it!) our coming book this Saturday at 9 am.

Yana Breindl and I will also present our co-written chapter "Leetocracy. Networked Political Activism and the Continuation of Elitism in Competitive Democracy." Friday 2.40 pm.

Also to look forward to: hundreds of brilliant scholars doing amazing stuff. I hope to blog some of it.

Oh btw don't forget to pre-order your

Araya, D., Breindl, Y., Houghton, T. J. (eds.). Nexus: New Intersections in Internet Research, New York: Peter Lang.

Social media is important, but not the way you think it is

I attended the "Preconference for the EU 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference. eGovernment Research and Innovation: Empowering Citizens through Government Services across Sectors and Borders" in Malmö on Wednesday this week. I had the pleasure of doing a co-presentation with Sofie and Johan from PWC, who had crafted a study on youth involvement in politics via social media - partly based on a draft version of a book chapter I wrote soon to appear in print. The presentation is here.

The report is getting at least some media attention in Sweden, so I'll put my comments here, as delivered on 18th November. The text is based on my notes.

I have four points to make.

1) Cultural differences

It is important to remember that when interpreting results from nation-based surveys of this kind, you have to take cultural differerences into account. You could actually take Sweden as a most-likely case for youth involvement online. High penetration rates of social media and traditionally high involvement of citizens in civil society, high levels of social trust and high electoral turnout make Sweden a special country.

2) The online-offline divide is pointless

I also believe that we should regard the Internet and social media not as an arena seperate from other channels of communication or life in general. We are talking about a seamless stream of interactions taking place on a number of platforms, but relations, attitudes and interests for individuals are stable over these platforms. This conference should not be about "eGovernment" and "eParticipation" - it should be about GOVERNMENT and PARTICIPATION!

People frequently underrate "new" forms of involvement, but that does not mean that they are right. A woman I interviewed told me that the political mobilisation attempts in Facebook were of no use. "So I got this invitation to join a group to condemn the local transport agency for selling ad space to religious conservatives, but that wouldn't make any difference, so I called them in person to speak my mind." And with that, she was in effect stating the importance of Facebook mibilisation.

3) Identity management might have indirect effects on political behaviour

Also, expressing political views on social network sites is regarded by most people as shrewd identity management, but in making politics and political views a part of your public identity, you come to view yourself as a politically engaged person. And that might mean something.

4) "Young people" are not a homogeneous group

Finally, we cannot view "young people" or "citizens" as a homogeneous group. Individuals have different backgrounds, motives, interests, skills and so on.

Everything we know about political participation tells us that education, age, and socio-economic status are much more important factors determining whether you will engage - not whether you have a Facebook account or not. In order to foster widespread participation among young people we need to start with providing equal opportunities for engagement - and that means providing good education and well-paid, inspiring jobs for all.

Thank you.