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Rethinking the Role of Collective Identity in Online Activism

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Rethinking the Role of Collective Identity in Online Activism WHERE IS THE “WE” IN ONLINE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS?: RETHINKING THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN ONLINE ACTIVISM By VICTORIA M. GONZALEZ, M.A. A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partiaL fulfiLLment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of PhiLosophy Graduate Program in Sociology Written under the direction of Karen Cerulo And approved by ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Where is the “We” in Online SociaL Movements?: Rethinking the Role of ColLective Identity in Online Activism by VICTORIA M. GONZALEZ, M.A. Dissertation Director: Karen Cerulo The reLationship between sociaL movements and sociaL media has been the subject of much speculation and research. The literatures that resulted often put forth inconsistent concLusions about how significant this reLationship is and how it may be changing sociaL movements. This is compounded by the fact that anaLysis of newer sociaL movements is consistentLy based on constructs and theories that derive from anaLysis of conventionaL offline sociaL movements. These kinds of anaLysis commonly concLude that online sociaL movements lack many of the basic tenets of what makes a genuine and successful sociaL movement. This dissertation anaLyzes two online sociaL movements, the Occupy WaLL Street and Swan Queen movements, through the lens of sociaL movements and communications theories in order to identify where these theories continue to apply and where they do not. From this anaLysis, I suggest that these movements are evidence of a paradigm shift in sociaL movements. Online sociaL movements have transLated aspects of sociaL movements into a modeL that blends both the online and the offline. I beLieve that these online sociaL movements are deveLoped through the construction of hybrid identities, where the activists display and negotiate a baLance between their offline and ii online identities throughout their identity markers, images and narratives that digitaLLy represent who the activists are and what sociaL movement they beLong to. In their identity markers, images and narratives, activists are displaying strategies that bridge the gap between personaL (identities, images and narratives) and colLective (identities, images and narratives). ColLective identity proves to stiLL be a significant aspect of movement deveLopment, but it is does not dictate the “we” of the movement as it once did. It is hybrid identity that does this instead. It can be argued that sociaL movements in generaL are a hybrid identity deveLoped in order to make activism inteLLigible in the reLativeLy boundaryless reaLms between the offline and online. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ ii TabLe of Contents ........................................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Why these cases?: An Examination of SociaL Movement LabeLs and the Logic Behind Them 13 Field Site: Tumblr, Micro-blogs and Activism .......................................................................... 22 Contributions and Significance .................................................................................................. 24 Dissertation Overview ................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 2: The Occupy and Swan Queen Movements: An Overview ................................... 30 The Occupy WaLl Street Movement ........................................................................................... 32 The 99% ................................................................................................................................. 38 The Swan Queen Movement ...................................................................................................... 40 Contentious Fan Activity ....................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3: Layers of Identity: The Personal, the Collective and the Hashtag ....................... 53 Personal Identity, ColLective Identity, Hashtag Identity and Beyond ........................................ 57 Layers of Identity ....................................................................................................................... 63 Personal Identity .................................................................................................................... 63 Collective Identity .................................................................................................................. 68 Hashtag Identity ..................................................................................................................... 78 Discussion: Hybrid Identity as Layers of Identity ..................................................................... 82 Chapter 4: The Digital Construction of Embodiment: The Role of Images in Online Protest ........................................................................................................................................................ 86 Embodied PoLitics: Is a Physical Body a Requirement of Embodiment? .................................. 90 DigitaL Construction of Embodiment ......................................................................................... 99 Avatar .................................................................................................................................. 100 iv The Partial Selfie ................................................................................................................. 104 The Selfie ............................................................................................................................. 106 Discussion: DigitaL Construction of Embodiment: Anonymity or Identity? ........................... 109 Chapter 5: Challenging Roles in Dominant Narrative Structures: The Negotiation of Narratives and the “Anti-Story” ............................................................................................... 114 Narrating Contention: Past and Present ................................................................................... 118 Negotiating Metanarratives and DeveLoping the “Anti-Story” ................................................ 124 Reclaiming ........................................................................................................................... 126 Rejecting .............................................................................................................................. 132 Discussion: Flipping the Script ................................................................................................ 137 Chapter 6: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 141 Hybrid Identity ......................................................................................................................... 143 Affordances and Activism ........................................................................................................ 146 The OnLine SociaL Movement: A ProposaL and Areas for Future Research ............................ 148 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................... 152 MethodoLogy ............................................................................................................................ 152 Identities .............................................................................................................................. 156 Images .................................................................................................................................. 158 Narratives ............................................................................................................................ 159 Tumblr as a Potential Field Site for Future Research ......................................................... 161 Figures ............................................................................................................................................... Figure 1 .................................................................................................................................... 162 Figure 2 .................................................................................................................................... 162 Figure 3 .................................................................................................................................... 163 Figure 4 .................................................................................................................................... 163 v Figure 5 .................................................................................................................................... 164 Figure 6 .................................................................................................................................... 164 Figure 7 ...................................................................................................................................
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