Social Media and Political Participation: An Investigation of Small Scale Activism in Greece

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2014.41001

Paper Menu >>

Journal Menu >>

Advances in Applied Sociology

2014. Vol.4, No.1, 1-4

Published Online January 2014 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/aasoci) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2014.41001

Social Media and Political Participation: An Investigation of

Small Scale Activism in Greece

Alex Afouxenidis

National Centre for Social Research, Athens, Greece

Email: [email protected]

Received November 3rd, 2013; revised December 3rd, 2013; accepted December 10th, 2013

tribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights ©

are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian.

This paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of online activism. The example used to illustrate the

above point provides some evidence that, on some occasions, civil society maybe mobilized through the

use of the internet and the online public sphere, to organize more coherent and practical political demands.

At the same time, it is also shown that the capacity of individuals to fully participate depends on previous

offline experiences as well as a relatively higher degree of technical competence.

Keywords: Civil Society; Digital Activis m; Po litical Engagement; Socia l N e two rk ing

Introduction

Power relations remain fundamental for the construction of

contemporary societies. Alongside these, come specific types of

institutional arrangements which exist in order to smooth the

edge to unequal forms of representation (Drake, 2010). One of

the main arguments used connected to the enhancement of lib-

eral democracies, is connected to the idea of reinvigorating the

public sphere through the use of new technology and the web.

Subsequently, the basic question of this paper is whether on-

line group formation has helped to foster political engagement

and participation among individual citizens, civil society or-

ganizations and other similar associations in contemporary

Greece, especially under the current circumstances of severe

economic crisis (Afouxenidis & Kavoulakos, 2012)1. To this

end, an internet questionnaire was used, in order to assess the

overall impact of online/offline political participation and po-

litical engagement through the use of social networking groups.

The target group of this particular research consisted of unem-

ployed university lecturers who, almost four years ago, after

being appointed by university committees to their respective

departments, were still not in employment2. The study took

place between January and February 2012. The respondents

were 159 out of a possible 350. About 65% were male and

almost 60% were between the ages of 35 to 45 years old. The

main idea was to examine the relationship between the partici-

pants to the web, as a whole, and whether they engaged in po-

litical activity offline as a result of becoming relatively active

online.

Political Participation, Internet and

Social Media

Greece has an estimated overall number of over 5 million in-

ternet users, about 4 million facebook users3 and a significant

number of bloggers. This type of social media and internet

penetration served as a likely case to study whether social net-

working has restructured the face of political participation. The

participants in this study, are generally well-educated, young to

mid-age and relatively comfortable using the Internet. This

increased the probability of finding individuals and/or groups

engaged in digital activism, therefore gaining a more compre-

hensive understanding of the distinction between online and

offline political behaviour.

Despite the general and persisting trends regarding global

and regional digital inequality (Loader, 1998; ITU, 2012; Leon-

tidou, Afouxenidis, et al., 2013), during the first decade of the

21st century, social networks have become integrated into eve-

ryday life and practice for millions of people and organizations

around the world. A significant number of theoretical and em-

pirical studies in the social sciences are starting to form a pic-

ture of how this widely spread form of communication affects

constitutional democracy and political participation (Graham &

Martin, 1996; Gustafsson, 2012; Harlow, 2012; Hepburn, 2012;

Fuchs, 2012; Castells, 2012; Bakardjieva, Svensson, & Skoric,

2012) and possibly transforms the rules and methods of politi-

cal engagement.

Unemployment in Greece is almost 30% and youth unemployment is a

most 65%. For more information see,

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_30/08/2013_516

279

and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finan ce/financialcrisis/10230653/Greek

-youth-u

nemployment

-soars-to-64.9pc.html.

See,

http://www.thegu ardian.com/science

/blog/2013/jun/20/hundreds-young-sch

olars-held-hostage-greek.

This figure is taken from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats9.htm

accessed on 14/03/2013.

OPEN ACCESS 1

A. AFOUXENIDIS

An ongoing discussion in current research is concerned with

the question of whether the level of political participation in the

industrialized or post-industrial world is low. The academic

debate is split into two main arguments. Firstly, Putnam (2000)

argued that political participation is decreasing as the level of

social capital in society decreases and political apathy increases.

On the other hand, (Dalton, 2008; Dahlgren 2009) it has been

suggested that political participation is merely changing, taking

new forms, as post-materialist values (Inglehart, 1977) become

more salient, with social capital being readjusted. Consequently,

instead of, for example becoming members of political parties

and other such formal organizations, citizens are now engaged

outside of the traditional political system (Micheletti, 2003).

Since the rapid spread of internet connections in the 1990s,

social science has increasingly turned its eyes towards examin-

ing the web as a mechanism of a more democratic future or, as

a process which acts as yet another catalyst in terms of concen-

trating power into the hands of the few (Hindman, 2008). The

development of applications often referred to as Web 2.0 and

social media over the past ten years, combined with evidence of

new forms of rapid networked mobilization (Castells, 2001;

Atton, 2003), created a renewed interest in the effects of tech-

nology on civic activism and overall political participation.

There is a sort of historical element throughout various analyses

which spans for a period of over 25 years at least: initially,

during the 1990s, the web was discussed primarily as a sort of

cyberspace (Featherstone & Burrows, 1995; Star, 1995; Jones,

1995; Aronowitz, Martinsons, & Menser, 1996). This was also

exposed in popular culture via movies such as the Matrix and

others, which explored this idea to the fullest and which pre-

sented a kind of post-apocalyptic dystopian future. In addition,

technological development was also critically examined by

questioning the assumptions that it will necessarily lead to bet-

ter time s (Finnegan, Salaman, & Thompson, 1987; Pacey, 1994;

Robins & Webster, 1999). During the 2000s the web was de-

scribed more as a virtual space which produces and regenerates

various sorts of virtual societies and communities. It is only

recently, that the “net” has begun to be appreciated more close-

ly to what it actually is, namely another realm of everyday real-

ity. Therefore, in our view, although the distinction offline/

online may still have some methodological validity, it is be-

coming progressively defunct as a useful analytical tool. It is

more interesting to actually examine the two realities in unison

rather than in opposition. The evidence of the research pre-

sented in this paper attempts to look at the use of the net

through the lens described above.

A Note on Theory and Research Methodology

In our view, advances in computing power increased enorm-

ously the possibilities for research within the social sciences

fields. It has also helped in gathering and exchanging informa-

tion quickly across and among different strands of research,

thus generating interesting and substantial flows of information

and hard data. Additionally, the broad range, scope and volume

of data which can be analyzed have also increased.

However, this does not necessarily mean that theorizing, or

exploring new ways to do research, has significantly changed

within the social and political sciences. More than often, espe-

cially with regards to issues such as the one we are exploring

here, substantial problems and issues of the academic research

community have remained intact. For example, with regards to,

say, political sociology and/or sociology in general, the fact that

the field has already been broken down into smaller, sometimes

highly specialized sub-fields, meant that on many occasions

research is not directly related to the basic theoretical strands of

contemporary sociological thought (Afouxenidis, 2012). In

other words, fragmenting the field coupled by the ever-in-

creasing need for quick answers and responses to various social

issues, has lead to a peculiar sort of methodological standardi-

zation: individuals or groups of scientists doing research using,

more or less, similar or the same techniques irrespective of

what is actually being researched. This type of methodological

“impoverishment” can be partly explained by the loss of vigor-

ous theoretical argumentation (Turnsek & Jankowski, 2008).

With regards, to the case of studying the net and/or social

media, a number of interesting observations can be made. In

general, research remains fragmented and highly empiricist.

Research techniques are generally based on gathering huge

volumes of data, often with no real consideration on their actual

validity, such as what sort of evidence can be usefully utilized,

or how and in what ways web data can be correlated to non-

web data. Also, comparative elements which are always perti-

nent in researching society seem to be missing. For example,

researchers and academic institutions have done a lot of work

on, say, new social media without accounting for possible si-

milarities and/or differences amongst them. Another example is

related to the fact that a lot of net research is primarily focused

on the individual actor rather than on the possible collective

impact social networking may have on individuals. Thus, issues

such as diversity, projection of identity and political behaviour,

are simply reflected by researchers rather than critically inter-

rogated. The opportunity to gather large amounts of data, does

not necessarily mean that social scientists understand or are

able to explain societal organization and behaviour more in

depth than previously, especially when adequate theorizing is

lacking.

Political Participation: The Case Study

Underlying the basic research concept was the idea that de-

mocratization in the world of inter-connectedness, may reflect

new types of political participation compatible with, or even

brought about by, technological change.

The current economic and social crisis in Greece, has

brought forward elements connected to the theme of political

participation which generally involved the urban youth and

some particular collectivities, which played an active part in

popular mobilizations since the beginning of the crisis. In gen-

eral, mobilizations shared one basic characteristic: they existed

offline and they mobilized by using online technologies as well

as traditional methods.

However, the group of unemployed/underemployed univer-

sity lecturers, presented an interesting differentiation to the

above: it became organized mainly because of the creation of

an internet platform via which news, ideas and methods of mo-

bilization could be rapidly exchanged.

The main narrative behind the study is connected to the fact

that because of the severity of the economic crisis the govern-

ment decided to freeze all newcomer lecturers from entering the

This platform is still a ctive at

http://lectur

e.jimdo.com/2011/02/27/%CE%B1-%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE

%BA%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%B5%CF%82

-%CF%83%CF%84

%CE%BF-%CF%88%CF%85%CE%B3%CE%B5%CE%AF %CE%BF/

OPEN ACCESS

A. AFOUXENIDIS

university system. These people, spread all over the country,

had very little contact with one another and great difficulty in

getting together in terms of collectively becoming organized.

This study utilized their online platform4 to ask them a series of

questions via an internet questionnaire in order to examine two

basic issues: firstly, whether they are active online and, se-

condly, whether their level of political participation and activity

grew because of using the net. This is a target group oriented

study which looks at people who have a rather high educational

background and who use the net on a, more or less, daily basis.

In order to correlate our online evidence we also conducted a

series of offline interviews with people who played a major role

behind organizing the whole group.

The interviews indicated that individuals who had no pre-

vious experience of collective action, came together almost by

chance, via looking up information over the net primarily fo-

cusing on the legal aspects of the government’s actions. In oth-

er words, the net was the instrument that brought them together

and it was over the net that they exchanged e-mails and person-

al info. They, very quickly, decided to meet offline and organ-

ize as a collective group. They subsequently decided to build up

a net site which in turn, became the major tool for disseminat-

ing info, exchanging ideas and organizing various offline

events. After the site was created membership grew rapidly

demanding their rights from the government in a more substan-

tial and organized manner. Evidence from the questionnaire

shows clearly that a huge majority (almost 95%) say that the

group would not have existed without the net site. In terms of

everyday organizational functioning of the group, almost eve-

rything is done online: informing the members, exchanging

ideas via the blog and the forum and holding virtual meetings to

decide on future activities.

The main quantitative findings of the research briefly indi-

cate the following:

● Individuals are in the net every day, mostly for professional

reasons. Only 9% used the net for connecting to social me-

dia. Therefore, net penetration is high but that is not re-

flected onto social media penetration.

● They use the net mostly as consumers rather than as crea-

tors of their own material. For example, 76% stated that

they never post messages relating to political content.

● They also seem to participate more in activities such as

online petition signing.

● A significant number of people (42%) became informed

about the creation of the group via the net.

● Almost 87% said that they remain “ordinary members” of

the group.

● About 74% stated that they never belonged to any political

party or such similar organization.

● About 46% said that they never belonged to any other sort

of collective organization, such as an environmental or po-

litica l mo vement, etc.

● Almost 70% said tha t they ha ve never been members of any

civil society organizations, NGO’s, etc.

The above evidence show that in general, people have had a

relatively low level of offline political participation and activity

which did not substantially improve because of net use. How-

ever an interesting point arose when we asked whether their

participation in the group increased the time they spend on the

net and by default whether it has improved their knowledge on

political and current affairs. About 22% responded positively to

the first question, and interestingly enough, almost 47% said

that they feel more informed via their participation in the group.

A number of respondents were positive when prompted to

indicate whether they feel more positively inclined to partici-

pate in public activities which have a political context. These

are people who used to be active in the past and who became

interested in political participation again due to the existence of

the group’s site. Their four main characteristics are as follows:

● Individuals who post political messages over the net and

social me dia.

● Individuals who participate in mailing lists.

● Individuals who write in forums.

● Individuals who regularly visit web pages of various social

movements.

In general, it seems that people who had experience in col-

lective action and/or direct political participation in the past and

who for various reasons were inactive, became interested again

because of the use of the group’s net site.

Conclusion

Evidence is unclear on whether the use of the net and/or so-

cial media with respect to political participation actually en-

hances activity and generates new forms of democratic en-

gagement. While it is highly noteworthy that online participa-

tion is the major cause for the generation of an offline collec-

tive organizational form, evidence also points to the fact that

use of the net is ephemeral and does not alter significantly the

basic “political discourse” of individuals. Although, for exam-

ple, it may slightly increase political knowledge, this does not

mean increased levels of participation which strongly correlate

to net use. Social movements and active individuals have exi sted

before the era of mass communication just as they do today. In

addition, a number of significant issues have come to the fore-

front such as whether community engagement and participation

changes because of digital transformation and whether political

communities actually become more active through the use of

social media. Therefore, what precisely it means to be politi-

cally active on or off the net, and whether democratic processes

are enhanced because of the net are questions for further re-

search and investigation.

REFERENCES

Afouxenidis, A., & Kavoulakos, K. (2012). New forms of political

participation and mobilization via the use of social media in con-

temporary Greece. IPSA XXII World Congress of Political Science,

Madrid, 8-12 July 2012.

Afouxenidis, A. (2012). Social theory in times of crisis. In Α. Αfou-

xenidis (Ed.), Inequality in times of crisis: theoretical & empirical

observations (pp. 17-24). Athens: Propobos Publications.

Aronowitz, S., Martinsons, B., & Menser, M. (1996). Technoscience

and cyberculture. New York: Routledge.

Atton, C. (2003). Reshaping social movement media for a new mille-

nium. Social Movement Studies, 2, 3-15.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1474283032000062530

Bakardjieva, M., Sven sson, J., & Sko ric, M. (20 12). Digital citizenship

and activism: Questions of power and participatio n online. Journal of

e-Democracy, 4, i-iv.

Castells, M. (2001). The internet galaxy: Reflections on the internet,

business and society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Castells, M. (2012). Networks of outrage and hope. Social movements

in the internet age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dahlgren, P. (2009). Media and political engagement: Citizens, com-

munication and democracy. Cambridge: CUP.

Dalton, R. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political

OPEN ACCESS 3

A. AFOUXENIDIS

participation. Political Studies, 56, 76-98.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00718.x

Drake, M. (2010). Political sociology for a globalizing world. Cam-

bridge: Polity Press.

Featherstone, M., & Burrows, R. (1995). Cyberspace, cyberbodies,

cyberpunk: Cultures of technological embodiment. London: Sage.

Finnegan, R., Salaman, G., & Thompson, K. (1987). Information tech-

nology: Social I s s ues. London: Hodder & Stought on.

Fuchs, C. (2012). Some reflections on manuel Castells’ Book networks

of outrage and hope. Social movements in the internet age. Triple C,

10, 775-797.

Graham, S., & Marvin, S. (1996). Telecommunications and the city:

Electronic spaces, urban places. London: Routledge .

http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203430453

Gustafsson, N. (2012 ). The subtle nature of Facebo ok politics: Swedish

social network site users and political participation. New Media So-

ciety, 14, 1111-1127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444812439551

Harlow, S. (2012). Social media and social movements: Facebook and

an online Guatemalan justice movement that moved offline. New

Media & Society, 14, 225-243.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444811410408

Hepburn, P. (2012). Is this local e-democracy? How the online sphere

of influence shaped local politics. Journal of e-Democracy, 4, 45-66.

Hindman, M. (2008). The myth of digital democracy. Princeton: Prin-

ceton University Press.

Inglehart, R. (1 977). The Silent Revolution: Changing values and polit-

ical styles among Western publics. Princeton: Princeton University

Press.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) (2012). Measuring the

Information Society. Geneva, Switzerland.

Jones, S. (1995). Cybersociety: Computer-mediated communication

and community. London: Sage.

Leontidou, L., Afouxenidis, A., Gialis, S., & Stringli, A. (2013). Per-

sisting digital society territorial divides. In R. Gonzalez (Ed.) Euro-

pean regions in the strategy to emerge from th e crisis (pp. 101-117).

Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

Loader, B. (1998). Cyberspace divide: Equality, agency and policy in

the Information Society. London: Routledge.

http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203169537

Micheletti, M. (2003). Political virtue and shopping: Individuals, con-

sumerism, and collective action. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781403973764

Pacey, A. (1994). The culture of technology. Cambridge, MS: MIT Press.

Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone: The C ollapse and Revival of Amer-

ican Community. NY: Simon & Schuster.

Robins, K., & We bster, F. (199 9). Times of the technoculture. London:

Routledge.

Star, S. (1995 ). The cultures of computing. Oxford: Blackwell.

Turnsek, M., & Jankowski, N. (2008). Social media and politics: Theo-

retical and methodolo gical considerations in designing a study of po-

litical engagement. Politics: Web 2.0: An International Conference

New Political Communication Unit Royal Holloway, University of

London, 17-18 April 2008.

OPEN ACCESS