Social movements as complex adaptive systems: The antecedents and consequences of movement participation in the age of social media

ABSTRACT

In this study, we focus on social movements as complex adaptive systems where citizens act as autonomous agents engaging in collective sensemaking of information gleaned via social media to generate emergent patterns of self-organization. Based on a systematic literature review, we propose a theoretical framework focusing on the antecedents and consequences of social movement participation as complex adaptive systems. We identified three major antecedents of social movement activity – social identity, political efficacy, and structural embeddedness – that are moderated by social media use and lead to movement participation. The consequences of social movement participation yield enduring effects on participating individuals through effects on their social identity, political efficacy, and structural embeddedness. This paper contributes to the existing literature by analyzing social movement activity through the lens of complex adaptive systems and proposing a new framework explaining the process of citizen self-organization in social movements. Social media use enables movement activity and is positioned as a key moderating factor in our framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Social movements
• social media
• social identity
• political efficacy
• structural embeddedness
• complex adaptive systems

Notes

¹ Collective action refers to deliberate individual or group actions taken for a collective objective – ranging from the advancement of specific ideals or ideologies to aims that are political in nature (Brunsting & Postmes, 2002; Louis, 2009). Examples of collective actions include voting, signing petitions, online or offline activities, rioting, etc., (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012) activities that are well beyond the scope of social movements.

² Protests are similar to social movements but with a much narrower scope. For protests to reach the magnitude of social movements, researchers have established a few criteria: Protests must have a well-defined vision of collective goals. They must create coalitions though mobilizing active allies, passive supporters, neutral groups, and key institutions such as the police and media. And finally, it’s not sufficient for protest activity to result in a desired action or set of actions. Rather, protest activity must change the beliefs behind the shared actions (Satell & Popovic, 2017). Protest activities may range from the signing of petitions to participation in lawful demonstrations, boycotts, and informal strikes.