Act now and sign our joint statement!’ What role do online global group petitions play in transnational movement networks

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11638530
AutoresMichael Strange (0000-0002-2903-7267, Malmö University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen33
Número8
Páginas1236-1253
Fecha de publicación2011-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0163443711422461
OpenAlexW2128835873
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas30

The article focuses on a frequently used but under-researched protest medium through which transnational movement networks express their collective demands – what are termed here ‘global group petitions’ (GGPs), and activists themselves call ‘sign-on statements’ or ‘joint statements’. GGPs are online petitions typically framed as ‘global’ and linking sometimes hundreds of advocacy groups behind a common set of critical statements contesting global politics. Despite a burgeoning literature examining the use of digital media by movement networks, the article shows that GGPs are a distinct form of activism which to date has been overlooked by social science. Studying GGPs helps explore a series of issues central to understanding the role of advocacy groups in global politics, including their internal power relations (i.e. between North and South). Presenting empirical analysis and interviews with activists relating to five GGPs used in the course of a single transnational movement network – against negotiations to expand the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade-in-Services – the article concludes that whilst GGPs are not as ‘global’ or representative of a movement network as they may claim, their value is in facilitating momentum and a process of dialogue between potential advocacy partners

Collective action · Media studies · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Sign (mathematics · Social media · Social movement · Sociology · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Social Media and Politics