printEcoconflicts in Russia and Digital Networks Participation
Golbraich V.B.
Research Fellow, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, Saint Petersburg, Russia vgolbraih@mail.ru
Budgetary financing for the planned theme (AAAA-A17-117030110144-3, No. 0169-2015-0005).
Golbraich V.B. Ecoconflicts in Russia and Digital Networks Participation. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 6. P. 74-85
One can observe a growing role of social media, among other things in course of protest actions. That is why researchers begin to speak about emergence of a new type of political participation – that is digital network participation. My study deals with political activists’ employment of VKontakte social network, which is the largest social network in Russia, in the course of environmental conflicts. I have analyzed ‘digital network participation’ (i.e. dissemination of information about a conflict, distribution of information in social networks, and participation in discussions) of these virtual groups members. The analysis showed an active usage of social media in the course of environmental conflicts in contemporary Russia. Activists use virtual groups created during the conflicts for dissemination of information and mobilization of social networks’ users. A utilization of virtual groups by activists for mobilization of social networks’ users both for online participation (signing online petitions and distribution of information) and for traditional participation (meetings and public hearings) is the focus of the study. At the same time the members of virtual groups demonstrate only mild ‘digital network participation’. To a greater extent the group members participate in dissemination of information placed in the group, that is the less costintensive form of digital network participation. Absolute majority of members of the groups created in the course of local environmental conflicts restricted their activities mainly to joining in virtual groups in social media. The analysis also elucidated that the majority of the group members did not intend to participate in the traditional forms of political activity.
Bykov I.A., Hall T.E. (2011) Digital Divide and the Internet-users’ Political Preferences in Russia. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya [POLIS. Political Studies]. No. 5: 151–163. (In Russ.)
van Deth J.W. (2014) A Conceptual Map of Political Participation. Acta Politica. Vol. 49. No. 3: 349–367.
Golbraykh V.B. (2016а) Environmental Public Initiative on the Internet as a New Public Participation practice. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Sociologiya. Politologiya [Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science]. No. 4: 340–350. (In Russ.)
Golbraykh V.B. (2016b) Ecological Activism: New Forms of Political Participation. Vlast' i elity [Power and Elites]. No. 3: 98–120. (In Russ.).
Haunss S. (2015) Promise and Practice in Studies of Social Media and Movements In: Critical Perspectives on Social Media and Protest: Between Control and Emancipation. Ed. L. Dencik, O. Leistert. London: Rowman & Littlefield International: 13–34.
Ksenophontova I.V. (2012) The Role of the Internet in the Development of Protest Movement. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ehkonomicheskie i socialnye peremeny [The Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic & Social Changes]. No. 3: 114–116. (In Russ.)
Norris P. (2002) Count Every Voice: Democratic Participation Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Radchenko D.A., Pisarevskaya D.B., Ksenofontova I.V. (2014) The Logic of Virtual Protests: The Internet after Elections. In: «We are not dumb!» Anthropology of Protest in Russia, 2011–2012. Comp. by A. Arkhipov, M. Alekseevsky. Tartu: Nauchnoe izdatel’stvo ELM: 17–44. (In Russ.)
Sherstobitov A. (2014) The Potential of Social Media in Russia: From Political Mobilization to Civic Engagement. In: Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia. URL: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2729118 (accessed 21.01.2018).
Theocharis Y. (2015) Is Digitally Networked Participation a Form of Political Participation? In: Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis: Essays in Honour of Jan W. van Deth. Ed. by T. Poguntke, S. Rossteutscher, R. Schmitt-Beck, S. Zmerli. New York: Routledge: 189 205.
Theocharis Y. (2015) The Conceptualization of Digitally Networked Participation. Social Media + Society. July–December: 1–14.
Theocharis Y., van Deth J.W. (2015) The Curious Case of Digitally Networked Participation Conceptualizing and Measuring Digitally Enabled Political Participation. September 7. URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/ sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2657082 (accessed 21.01.2018). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2657082.
Theocharis Y., van Deth J.W., Císař O. (2016) «We Came Unequal into This Digital World, and Unequal Shall We Go Out of It»? Digital Media and Participatory Inequality in Europe. URL: https://wp.nyu.edu/ smappglobal/wp-content/uploads/sites/1694/2016/05/Theocharis-et-al.SMaPP_.2016.Draft1-1.pdf (accessed 21.01.2018).
Ushkin S.G. (2014) Protest Communities in Social Networks: Three Years of Observation. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ehkonomicheskie i socialnye peremeny [The Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic & Social Changes]. No. 6: 112–118. (In Russ.)
Vanke A.B. Ksenofontova I.B., Tartakovskaya I.N. (2014) Internet Communication as a Means and a Condition of Political Mobilization in Russia: Case of the «For Fair Elections». Interaktsiya. Intervyu. Interpretatsiya [Interaction. Interview. Interpretation]. No. 7: 44–73. (In Russ.)