Political Movements in Europe and China
Political Movements of Europe and China
Introduction
For this assignment I am going to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of social networks in attracting, organising, linking and mobilising participants of social movements with both homogeneous and different backgrounds. I will also consider the extent to which the internet is effective in enhancing social networks and strengthening social movements.
Firstly I will discuss the relationship between the internet and social movements drawing on a matrix put forward by Laer and Aelst (2010), which places social movements into one of four dimensions – internet supported movements versus internet based movements and low threshold movements versus high threshold movements.
I have chosen Burmese social movements as the basis of my case study. I will next consider the use of the internet in Burma (also known as Myanmar), with regards to access, usage, censorship and the extent to which it has been used for a platform for activism.
More specifically I will first consider the Burma Global Action Network, which used the internet as a basis for its transnational social movement and secondly, the more recent use of Youtube (a video sharing platform with social networking aspects) by a fraction of radical Burmese monks in order to incite a boycott of businesses run by Burmese Muslims and which has resulted in outbursts of violence towards Muslims.
With each of these case studies I will consider their position on the 'typology of a new digitalised action repertoire' matrix put forward by Laer and Aelst (2010) and the extent to which the internet and social networking has facilitated their movement.
The Internet and Social Movements
Since the use of the internet became widespread and mainstream, its use in both local and transnational social movements has become instrumental. Diani (1992) defined social movements as “networks of informal interaction between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or
Introduction
For this assignment I am going to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of social networks in attracting, organising, linking and mobilising participants of social movements with both homogeneous and different backgrounds. I will also consider the extent to which the internet is effective in enhancing social networks and strengthening social movements.
Firstly I will discuss the relationship between the internet and social movements drawing on a matrix put forward by Laer and Aelst (2010), which places social movements into one of four dimensions – internet supported movements versus internet based movements and low threshold movements versus high threshold movements.
I have chosen Burmese social movements as the basis of my case study. I will next consider the use of the internet in Burma (also known as Myanmar), with regards to access, usage, censorship and the extent to which it has been used for a platform for activism.
More specifically I will first consider the Burma Global Action Network, which used the internet as a basis for its transnational social movement and secondly, the more recent use of Youtube (a video sharing platform with social networking aspects) by a fraction of radical Burmese monks in order to incite a boycott of businesses run by Burmese Muslims and which has resulted in outbursts of violence towards Muslims.
With each of these case studies I will consider their position on the 'typology of a new digitalised action repertoire' matrix put forward by Laer and Aelst (2010) and the extent to which the internet and social networking has facilitated their movement.
The Internet and Social Movements
Since the use of the internet became widespread and mainstream, its use in both local and transnational social movements has become instrumental. Diani (1992) defined social movements as “networks of informal interaction between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or