Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age

What could be the common thread that united in people’s minds their experiences of revolt in spite of the vastly diverse cultural, economic and institutional contexts? In a nutshell: their feeling of empowerment.

For society at large, the key source of the social production of meaning is the process of socialized communication. Socialized communication exists in the public realm beyond interpersonal communication.

This is why the fundamental power struggle is the battle for the construction of meaning in the minds of the people.

Torturing bodies is less effective than shaping minds.

However, the construction of meaning in people’s minds is a more decisive and more stable source of power.

start from the premise that power relationships are constitutive of society because those who have power construct the institutions of society according to their values and interests. Power is exercised by means of coercion (the monopoly of violence, legitimate or not, by the control of the state) and/or by the construction of meaning in people’s m

Thus, my purpose is more limited: to suggest some hypotheses, grounded on observation, on the nature and perspectives of networked social movements, with the hope of identifying the new paths of social change in our time, and to stimulate a debate on the practical (and ultimately political) implications of these hypotheses. This analysis is based

No one expected it. In a world darkened by economic distress, political cynicism, cultural emptiness and personal hopelessness, it just happened.