Civic Participation in Contentious Politics: The Digital Foreshadowing of Protest

The book examines the highly dynamic communication ecology of recent contentious politics and its expanding digital footprint. First, it looks at the attainment of democratic citizenship through practice as street protests attract substantial numbers of followers who narrate their involvement or reflect on the claims and the implications of collective action on social media. Secondly, it considers the ramifications for contemporary democracy arising from the large-scale uptake of social media by variegated protest networks, which no longer pivot on the coordination capacity of bureaucratic movement organizations. The book ties these aspects together to propose that contentious politics can be a fertile ground for progressive civic participation.

Dan Mercea is Lecturer in Sociology at City University London, UK, and Director of the Postgraduate Programme in Media and Communications. He has a lasting interest in the media and communication practices of groups, individuals and organisations involved in protest events. He has published on this topic in the Journal of Communication, New Media and Society, Information, Communication and Society, The Communication Review and Convergence. He has also edited two collections on the use of digital media in democratic politics.