Embedding Digital Communications Within Collective Action Networks: A Multidimensional Network Approach

Abstract

In this article, we conceive of digital media as embedded within social networks, and use this perspective to examine the role of online communications in collective action. We claim that the adoption of this perspective requires two shifts: first, rethinking the ontological separation between media and social networks of action that has, so far, characterized research in this domain; second, the adoption of flexible tools that enable us to account, simultaneously, for the multiplicity of relations underpinning collective efforts and the hybrid interplay between direct and technology-mediated interactions. After discussing the necessity and the implications of considering communication technologies as endogenous to social networks of collective action, we introduce multidimensional networks (MDNs) as a suitable perspective to advance the application of a relational approach to the study of collective action, thus meeting the challenges posed by the diffusion of interactive and networking digital media.

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