Comment on 'Organization in the Crowd: peer production in large-scale networked protests'

摘要

In 'Organization in the Crowd', Lance Bennett, Alexandra Segerberg, and Shawn Walker use Twitter activity surrounding the 2011-2012 Occupy movement to identify the microfoundations of crowd-based organizing. It is a fascinating empirical extension of their broader project, The Logic of Connective Action (2012, 2013), laying clear the connections between commons-based peer production (Benkler, 2006) and crowd-enabled digital protest activities. Bennett, Segerberg and Walker identify three distinct activities - production, curation, and dynamic integration - that members of these political crowds can perform through digital networks. This is a keen insight. The article also raises questions, however, about how the 'crowd'-based lens compares to more traditional perspectives on movements, networks, and organizations. Occupy Wall Street looks different through Twitter than through in-person mass protests, small organizing committee meetings, or mainstream media representations. The view from Twitter introduces a new object of study.