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Does social media, like Facebook and Twitter,
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lead to revolutions (like recent events in

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Tunisia)?
Posted by Brian - January 17, 2011 8:16 AM - 1 comment Categories
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Early news reports about the recent uprising in Tunisia have suggested that social RSS Feeds
media played a role as participants used such technology and organize and
All RSS
coordinate activities. (See this AP story with the headline of Jobless youths in
Legally RSS
Tunisia riot using Facebook.) In the midst of a lively debate over whether social
media actually can lead to revolution (see the earlier post on Malcolm Gladwells Sociable RSS
recent thoughts on this), a sociologist provides a short overview of how he thinks
sociology has addressed (or has not addressed) this question: Established Sites
When the debate does pick up again, though, I wouldnt mind seeing a few Atlantic (Monthly)
new wrinkles added into the mix. What all of the above writers share, I would
Wired
argue, is, first, a notion of collective action overly-indebted to definitions of
action and coordination provided by economics, and (second) a somewhat a- Arts & Letters Daily

historical focus in digital technology. One of the problems with the debate as The Infrastructurist
it is currently structured is that other academic disciplines, particularly Instapundit
sociology, have largely stopped asking questions about the relationship
The Chronicle of Higher Education
between the media and social movements. Indeed, sociology has largely
stopped asking questions about the media at all. (Im generalizing wildly here,
of course, but as evidence I would point you toward the cogently argued and Legal
well-titled article by Jefferson Pooley and Elihu Katz, Why American
How Appealing
Sociology Abandoned Mass Communication Research.) A second problem with
ABA Daily News
the current debate lies in the fact that more complex theorizing about the
nature of technological artifacts has yet to penetrate the mainstream Threat Level
debates over the roles played by technology in political protest. CMLP

There are, of course, exceptions. When it comes to deep and important Techdirt
thinking about media and social movements from a sociological perspective Id
point you toward work by Francesca Polletta and Edwin Amenta at UC Irvine,
Sociological
W. Lance Bennetts work on political communication and protest, and
especially research by Andrew Chadwick, and John Downing. In his discussion Scatterplot

of organizational repertoires and their relationship to media, just as one Orgtheory

example, Chadwick draws on a lengthy tradition of thought in classic social Sociological Images
movement research aimed at understanding the role repertoires play in
sustaining collective identity. They are not simply neutral tools to be adopted
at will, but come to shape what it means to be a participant in a political
Recent Posts
organization. Values shape repertoires of collective action, which in turn The shopping malls that track your
shape the kind adoption of organizational forms. shopping patterns

In short, a primary advantage provided by a core sociological perspective on The still somewhat large and pricey
social movements is that they bring values and culture back into our
Not So Big house in the Chicago
conversation, problematizing notions of what collective action even means in
suburbs
the first place.
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Shifting resourcesataway11/28/2011 1:35:21 PM
from the
URL: http://legallysociable.com/2011/01/17/does-social-media-like-facebook-and-twitter-lead-to-revolutions-like-recent-events-in-tunisia/
I would be interested to hear how other sociologists would respond to this,
fringe suburb[s]
particularly those who study and write about social movements. Just being part of
a Facebook or Twitter conversation or group doesnt not necessarily lead to The racial disparities in the Chicago
collective action. So when does organizing through social media turn from just an blues scene
online activity to rioting in the streets?
Modern cities that have vanished
Here is a bit of the AP story talking about how Facebook was used in a country Debating the merits of using the word
where some Internet uses, such as YouTube, are regulated, but Facebook is not:
cancer
Video-sharing sites like YouTube and Daily Motion are banned in Tunisia, Buried McMansions as art in New York
where newspapers are tightly censured, but Facebook abounds and videos
City
posted there are quickly spread around.
NYC proposal for an underground park
One in 10 Tunisians has a Facebook account, according to Ben Hassen,
Australian critiques of suburbia
whose movement is also on Facebook.
Not something to be thankful for: the
Its a form of civil resistance, he said.
US as world leader in incarceration
How exactly did this happen? And with a limited number of people in the country
on Facebook, how did this become something larger? Sounds like a start to a
research paper
Tags
American culture
architecture Chicago cities

Posted in Sociology
college & university
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Tags: collective action, Facebook, Internet, Malcolm Gladwell, revolution, social economic
design development
media, Tunisia crisis Facebook football foreclosures
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One Response - Add Yours+ housing infrastructure Internet
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More info on how Internet helped movement in Tunisia | Legally Sociable says:
City perceptions politics race religion
January 30, 2011 at 6:23 PM
single-family homes social class
[...] have been a number of news stories that have suggested that the sociology sports sprawl statistics
Internet played a role in the recent political movement in Tunisia that ousted suburbs television United
the government. In an interview with Wired, the director of the Tunisian States
Internet [...]

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