Page 140 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

126 Social Movements

The new modes of global social networking complicate the formation
and extension of collective identity, which was always a highly complex
undertaking. The Internet facilitates more individualized participation in
social movements than was previously the case. Although credible infor-
mation and authoritative debate is generally channeled through the web-
sites of social movement organizations, the web enables individuals not
only to interpret a movement ’ s aims and means for themselves, but also
to communicate easily and widely with other people. An expansive, virtu-

ally infinite, variety of individual perspectives potentially makes for a
much more diffuse sense of commonality amongst those who see them-
selves as members of a movement. In addition, the fact that individuals ’
particular views are so much more visible on the Internet also facilitates
multiple links between and across different causes. Global social move-
ments like the global justice movement are remarkably diverse, linking a
range of issues including human rights, the environment, and poverty that
were addressed by quite distinct networks of activists before the Internet
(Bennett, 2005 ). Della Porta argues that, in comparison with previous
movements, the global justice movement is also much more diverse in
terms of participants, too, with different generations, people with a wide
variety of conditions of employment, and roughly equal numbers of men
and women participating. She argues that the global justice movement
favors “ tolerant identities, ” stressing the importance of diversity and

dialogue, openness and fluidity, with the simultaneous expression of mul-
tiple identities (Della Porta, 2005 : 180 – 6).
“ Collective identity ” is further complicated insofar as individuals ’
search for meaning and value for their own lives is prominent in the
mobilization of global social movements. This may not be in such marked
contrast to previous social movements, but perhaps it is of increasing
signifi cance. “ Subjectivity, ” the way activists think and feel about them-
selves as individuals, is itself of immense symbolic importance in these
movements (Della Porta, 2005 : 198 – 9; McDonald, 2006 : 32 – 3). Kevin
McDonald argues that the search for meaning, the way in which indi-
vidual activists are trying to make sense of their own lives through col-
lective action, is evident in the immense value that is put on embodied
experience in global social movements: in participation in the expressive
protest events of the global justice movement, for example, and the
embodied politics of occupying space to protest against environmental
damage (McDonald, 2006 ).
The relative ease with which activists switch between issues, targets,
and messages, which is facilitated by the use of new media technology,
certainly raises important questions about whether membership of global