Javier Sajuria

Tweeting alone? An analysis of bridging and bonding social capital in online networks

In this article, we test Putnam’s claim that online interactions are unable to foster social capital by examining the formation of bridging and bonding social capital in online networks. Using Burt’s concepts of closure and brokerage as indicators, we observe networks formed through online interactions and test them against several theoretical models. We test Putnam’s claim using Twitter data from three events: the Occupy movement in 2011, the IF Campaign in 2013, and the Chilean Presidential Election of the same year. Our results provide the first evidence that online networks are able to produce the structural features of social capital. In the case of bonding social capital, online ties are more effective in forming close networks than theory predicts. However, bridging social capital is observed under certain conditions, for example, in the presence of organizations and professional brokers. This latter finding provides additional evidence for the argument that social capital follows similar patterns online and offline.

Do We Need Polls? Why Twitter Will Not Replace Opinion Surveys, but Can Complement Them

Monitoring and using social media to understand — or influence — public opinion is not a new thing. Companies, political parties and organizations alike are keen to observe what their followers say, what people are commenting on their Facebook Pages and what is said in the comments sections of YouTube and Instagram. Moreover, a great deal of work has been done in building social media teams in charge of both engaging and analysing what people exchange through these platforms. To some extent, these phenomena have questioned whether traditional, more expensive, ways to observe public opinion are still required. The regular route for understanding public opinion, both at the consumer and the political levels, relies heavily on surveys. These instruments present their own advantages depending on the scope of the research. Moreover, they enjoy a fair amount of validity among the scientific community as proper instruments to analyse public attitudes.

Green party members and grassroots democracy: a comparative analysis

When Green parties emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, their political project included a strong commitment to a new type of internal party organization, giving power to the ‘grass roots’. With Green parties having become well established in most West European party systems, has the vision of ‘grass-roots democracy’ survived the party foundation stage? What drives the ongoing or waning commitment to grass-roots democracy? Analysing party membership survey data from 15 parties collected in the early 2000s when many Green parties had for the first time become involved in national government, we find that it is the social movement oriented, pacifist, left-wing membership that is most committed to grass-roots democracy. It is the current involvement in social movements rather than past activity that is most important. Support for grass-roots democracy is also stronger in ‘Latin Europe’ and Greece but weaker in parties which have become established in parliament and government.

Green party members and grass-roots democracy: A comparative analysis

When Green parties emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, their political project included a strong commitment to a new type of internal party organization, giving power to the ‘grass roots’. With Green parties having become well established in most West European party systems, has the vision of ‘grass-roots democracy’ survived the party foundation stage? What drives the ongoing or waning commitment to grass-roots democracy? Analysing party membership survey data from 15 parties collected in the early 2000s when many Green parties had for the first time become involved in national government, we find that it is the social movement oriented, pacifist, left-wing membership that is most committed to grass-roots democracy. It is the current involvement in social movements rather than past activity that is most important. Support for grass-roots democracy is also stronger in ‘Latin Europe’ and Greece but weaker in parties which have become established in parliament and government.

Green party members and grass-roots democracy

When Green parties emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, their political project included a strong commitment to a new type of internal party organization, giving power to the ‘grass roots’. With Green parties having become well established in most West European party systems, has the vision of ‘grass-roots democracy’ survived the party foundation stage? What drives the ongoing or waning commitment to grass-roots democracy? Analysing party membership survey data from 15 parties collected in the early 2000s when many Green parties had for the first time become involved in national government, we find that it is the social movement oriented, pacifist, left-wing membership that is most committed to grass-roots democracy. It is the current involvement in social movements rather than past activity that is most important. Support for grass-roots democracy is also stronger in ‘Latin Europe’ and Greece but weaker in parties which have become established in parliament and government.

Civil Society in Times of Crisis: Understanding Collective Action Dynamics in Digitally-Enabled Volunteer Networks

Social media play an important role in political mobilization. Voluntary engagement can especially benefit from new opportunities for organizing collective action. Although research has explored the use of Twitter by decentralized individuals for this, there has been little emphasis on its use for community engagement and the provision of public goods. Even less is known about its role in the emergence and offline expansion of spontaneous self-organized solidarity initiatives. This paper investigates how networked communication facilitates self-organization and the development of ties in a network of volunteers in Greece. To examine whether initiative-specific community feelings that can transcend online-offlsine divides evolve in such hybrid networks, the analysis is complemented with individual-level data drawn from a survey with the initiatives volunteers.