Civic and political mobilization in the era of social networks: an analysis of the action of social movements on Facebook

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the role of Facebook as a tool that articulates the daily practices of social movements, both in their internal organization and in communication and interaction with external elements. The methodological proposal involves the implementation of a mixed-methods approach, through content analysis of the Facebook pages of the eight movements studied and six face-to-face interviews with activists. The main results reveal that there is a strong anchoring of the movements to the broader political picture of the social and political crisis and intervention of the Troika, assuming their antagonism as their main objective. We also observed that, although they were successful in mobilizing a large part of the Portuguese population, the truth is that the mobilizing blaze was limited in time. The constructed model proved to be robust and flexible, which makes it possible to replicate it in future research in the field of political sociology.

civic mobilization; political participation; social networks; Facebook