[Air-L] + New Book: Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism +

[Gerbaudo, Paolo]

Dear list members,

My new book entitled Tweets and the Streets might be of interest for some of you, especially those working on the new media/activism nexus or social networking. You find a full description of the book below.

Tweets and the Streets is based on an ethnographic research conducted with movement activists in Egypt, Spain and the US and it focuses on the use of social media as a means of mobilisation. I have conducted 80 in-depth interviews and analysis of social media messages, as well as observations of protest events in these 3 countries. 

Among the main findings of the book are 1) the chiefly emotional rather than tactical use of social media to create shared identities and affective motivations among participants, rather than to coordinate "combat operations" 2) the use of social media as means not to sustain a "cyberspace" independent from geographic reality, but rather to organise physical gatherings in public space, and sustain a new experience of public space 3) the nature of social media activists in these movements as a diffuse and reluctant leadership, involved in choreographing the action of social movements, in setting the general scene for people's participation. 

Below you find the promotional blurb of the book. Do get in contact with me if you want to know more about the book and about my current research!


Best,

Paolo Gerbaudo

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Paolo Gerbaudo
TWEETS AND THE STREETS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONTEMPORARY ACTIVISM
London: Pluto Press, 2012

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745332482

Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest
movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the
"indignados" protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo
examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the
emergence of new forms of protest. Drawing on an extensive
ethnographic research, comprising 80 in-depth interviews, observations
of protest events and textual analysis of social media messages, the
book unveils the narratives and identities involved in the grassroots
appropriation of corporate platforms like Facebook and Twitter as
means of organisation and mobilisation.

Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not
fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality.
Instead, social media are used as part of a project of
re-appropriation of public space and are turned by protest organises
into means to 'choreograph' the assembling of individualised
constituencies around "occupied" places such as Cairo's Tahrir Square
or New York's Zuccotti Park. An exciting and invigorating journey
through the new politics of dissent, Tweets and the Streets points
both to the creative possibilities and to the risks of political
evanescence which social media brings to the contemporary protest
experience.

// Contents

Introduction

1. Friendly Reunions: Social Media and the Choreography of Assembly

2. 'We are not guys of comment and like': the Revolutionary
Coalescence of Shabab-al-Facebook

3. 'We are on the streets, we are not on Facebook': the Harvesting of
Indignation

4. 'The hash-tag which did (not) start a revolution': the laborious
Adding up to the 99%

5. 'Follow me, but don't ask me to lead you': Liquid Organising and
Choreographic Leadership

Conclusion

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Paolo Gerbaudo is a Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at King’s
College London, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the
American University in Cairo and a journalist for Italian newspaper il
manifesto.

If you are interested in adopting the book for your course please
contact chrisb at plutobooks.com

If you are interested in reviewing the book please contact jonw at plutobooks.com

// Book sample
http://www.tweetsandthestreets.org/2012/10/04/tweets-and-the-streets-free-sample/

// Book blog
http://www.tweetsandthestreets.org/

// Book Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/#!/tweetsandthestreets

// Book Tour

- October 25th - Book Launch @ King's College London, Council Room -
7,30pm - 8,30pm with Tim Jordan and Joss Hands

- November 15th - Book Presentation @ Creative Activism Thursdays -
7pm Performance Studies Dept. NYU, 721 Broadway, 6th floor, New York - with
Stephen Duncombe

- November 20th - Book Presentation @ Goldsmiths College - New
Academic Building (NAB) 302 - 6pm - New Cross, London - with Nick
Couldry, Alberto Toscano and Natalie Fenton

- November 25th - Cairo - tbc

- Madrid - tbc

- Milan - tbc

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Dr Paolo Gerbaudo,
Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society,
Culture, Media and Creative Industries Department,
Room 217A, 2nd Floor,
Norfolk Building,
King's College London,
Strand,
London WC2R 2LS, England

Phone: +44 (0)20 78481576
E-mail: paolo.gerbaudo at kcl.ac.uk
Twitter: @paologerbaudo