Connective or collective?

Abstract

This chapter traces the differences and intersections between online crowds and social movements as concepts and objects of analysis. It outlines the role of social media in the constitution of both crowds and movements, and particularly in processes of bonding, collective identity formation and group coordination. The chapter reviews research on the role of social media in the processes of bonding, organization and framing that characterize both the online crowds and the social movements coalescing around the same protest. Social media operate as systems of shared awareness, bringing together crowds with similar grievances and feelings of discontent. The online crowds coming together on social media are temporary formations with more open and vague boundaries. The creation of solidarity and collective identity further require processes of framing, the development of common schemas of interpretation. Researchers of online crowds and social movements study the same mobilizations but from a different angle and by employing diverging methods and conceptual frameworks.