Social Movements and Collective Action in Network Society

Abstract

A series of massive mobilizations have recently taken place world-wide and particularly in Latin America, representing contemporary political expressions that highlight the role of digital technologies and the Internet. The year 2011 has been symbolically chosen as the onset of this new world-wide cycle of protests that find precedent in global resistance movements emerged a decade ago. Some features of contemporary movements include the social appropriation of the Internet, the mixture of street activism with on-line activism, a new aesthetics and culturization of political practices, the relationship between the different types of direct action and representativeness with the notion of political and cultural counter-information, and the coexistence of a wide range of political and ideological stances.