Abstract
Zeynep Tufekci provides a detailed exploration of the dynamics of social movements in an information society, particularly in regard to the influence of social media, with her book, Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. Her analysis intersects with numerous subdisciplines within the field of communication studies and has the potential to inform academics, activists, and lay audiences alike. Notions of how organizing processes are altered through the expansion of social media into social movements address international, organizational, and mediated communication literature. Furthermore, one of the most interesting elements of Tufekci’s book involves ideas of the alternative—including both alternative organizing practices and alternative spaces in which activists can make their voices heard.
Tufekci is a Turkish writer and sociologist, with research focusing on digital technologies, politics, social movements, data, and algorithms. She draws from her significant experience in activism and social movements in writing her book, acting as a participant–observer in movements such as Tahrir Square in Egypt and Gezi Park in Turkey. In addition to exploration of personal accounts, she incorporates literature and research in the area of social movements. Tufekci suggests that social media and digital technology have fundamentally altered the nature of collective action, and by extension, social movements. Her rationale in focusing on social movements is strong; she demonstrates that digital technology has a tremendous impact on these movements, in part stemming from activists’ tendencies to be early adopters of digital technology. Drawing from numerous social movements, as well as attending to technical aspects of social media, such as algorithms for selecting content displayed to users, Tufekci establishes a capacities and signals approach to understanding social movements. She successfully argues that rather than focusing on outcomes and concrete indicators, attending to the underlying capacities afforded to social movements by digital technology and other means, as well as the signals of these capacities, allows a deeper understanding of the dynamics of social movements, and why they may or may not be successful.
In addition to suggesting new ways in which to broadly examine social movements, Tufekci provides a fascinating lens through which to consider organizational processes, suggesting that digital technology enables the formation of alternative organizing practices. She attends to the complexity of organizing social movements in the context of digital technology and social media, providing particularly insightful comments regarding the changing dynamics of activist organizations. Indeed, as Tufekci argues, contemporary activist organizing that relies on social media for mobilization is drastically different from such organizing in the past, as activists have the “ability to organize without organizations,” quickly mobilizing through social media alone and later building and solidifying an organizational structure (p. xiii).
For example, the Gezi Park movement in Istanbul demonstrated social media’s ability to enable rapid mobilization: “this digitally enhanced capacity allowed a movement that came to being with zero preparation beforehand and with little or no institutional leadership” (p. 52). Such organizing can be conceptualized as alternative in nature, emerging as leaderless “adhocracies” in which roles are not formally assigned, and tasks are accomplished as needed. As her case analyses illustrate, in many instances, activists establish alternative ways to accomplish their goals, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement’s development of egalitarian decision-making processes.
However, this lack of structure creates challenges for activist organizations, limiting the development of what Tufekci refers to as network internalities, or the collective capabilities organizations develop during more traditional organizing processes. As the Occupy Wall Street movement demonstrates, “with little organizational structure, though, the movement could not easily undertake large-scale efforts beyond the occupation, its original step” (p. 215). Rapid organizing enabled by social media limits organizations’ tactical capabilities, barriers that may be difficult to overcome through alternative organizing practices.
Beyond initiating alternative organizing strategies, digital technology also creates an alternative space for activist voices. As Tufekci argues, social media has disrupted the mass media’s monopoly on attention: “movements no longer need institutional presence to get their narratives out broadly” (p. 205). Using the Occupy Wall Street protests as one example, Tufekci illustrates that activists fully utilized social media as an alternative space to build their narrative, creating hundreds of Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of participants, effectively circumventing the traditional media that trivialized the movement. The way in which movements gain attention has shifted, enabling additional ways to develop and disseminate a narrative, or the creation of alternative discourses in alternative spaces.
In sum, Tufekci artfully manages the complex dynamics surrounding contemporary social movements, drawing attention to developments such as alternative organizing and alternative spaces for discourse. In many ways, her book pioneers the conceptual terrain of social movements in an information society, as scholars are just beginning to identify the impact that social media has on society at large, as well as social movement organizing in particular. As Tufekci summarizes, “we have barely begun to understand what it all may mean” (p. 263). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest covers an incredibly broad scope and does not offer hard and fast conclusions; yet, this would be an unrealistic expectation considering the modest ground we have covered so far in this new area of study. Thus, I suggest that Tufekci’s book serves as a foundational work in elucidating the dynamics of contemporary social movement organizing and posing questions that we must further explore as we watch future movements unfold. I anticipate that her work will inform scholars and activists alike for years to come.