Between Empathy and Solidarity. How Civic Activism Inhabits the Boundaries of Europe and Citizenship on Social Media Platforms


Abstract


This study explores the potential of digital civic activism, considering the existing contributions of migration, political, social movements, and media studies on solidarity towards contemporary migration flows in Europe. The study investigates how the unbalanced techno-symbolic assemblage of power exercised on European borders can be challenged through spontaneous acts of online solidarity. It looks at bottom-up solidarity on social media platforms, holding together two dimensions: the communicative practices of specific singular makers of solidarity, seen as potential activation elements; the response of the users reached and involved by their content. To this end, two activists located on the real borders of the Balkan route and on the digital borders of the social media platform Facebook have been studied, namely Nawal Soufi and Lorena Fornasir. A quali-quantitative analysis was carried out on posts and related comments published in the last two years on the Facebook pages of the two activists. We argue that in today's fragmented digital public sphere, their communicative practices are acts of citizenship insofar as they represent a form of resistance to the European fortress system and re-appropriation of the use of social media. Indeed, they can empathically - emotionally and cognitively - connect networked citizens to the reality of migration flows, conveying awareness and soliciting the participation of a possible mediapolis that casts on/offline acts.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v16i3p510

Keywords: civic activism; empathy; frame analysis; social media platforms; solidarity

References


Agcom (2022) Osservatorio sulle Comunicazioni n.4/2022. Available at: https://www.agcom.it/documents/10179/28977374/Documento+generico+22-12-2022/32493656-a4be-4b32-9c3d-02abfb7ade5c?version=1.0 accessed 10/02/2023.

Agustín Ó.G., Jørgensen M.B. (2016) Solidarity without Borders: Gramscian Perspectives on Migration and Civil Society Alliances. London: Pluto Press.

Agustín Ó.G., Jørgensen M.B. (2019) Solidarity and the 'Refugee Crisis' in Europe. Palgrave Pivot, Cham.

Airoldi M. (2022) Machine Habitus: Toward a Sociology of Algorithms. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Ambrosini M. (2004), Il futuro in mezzo a noi. Le seconde generazioni scaturite dall’immigrazione nella società italiana dei prossimi anni, in M. Ambrosini e S. Molina (a cura di), Seconde generazioni. Un’introduzione al futuro dell’immigrazione in Italia, Torino, Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, pp. 1-53.

Ambrosini M. (2022) Humanitarian Help and Refugees: De-Bordering Solidarity as a Contentious Issue, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.

Ambrosini M., Hajer M.H.J. (2023) Irregular Migration; IMISCOE Research Series; Cham: Springer.

Appadurai A. (2013) The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition. New York: Verso.

Berti C. (2021) Right-wing populism and the criminalization of sea-rescue NGOs: the ‘Sea-Watch 3’ case in Italy, and Matteo Salvini’s communication on Facebook. Media, Culture & Society, 43(3): 532–550.

Birey T., Cantat C., Maczynska E. and Sevinin E. (2019) (eds.) Challenging the Political Across Borders: Migrant’s and Solidarity Struggles, CEU CPS Book Series.

Bennett W. L., Segerberg A. (2012) The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Information, Communication & Society, 15: 739-768.

Bentivegna S., Boccia Artieri G. (2020) Rethinking Public Agenda in a Time of High-Choice Media Environment. Media and Communication, 8(4): 6-15

Bentivegna S., Boccia Artieri G. (2021) Voci della democrazia. Il futuro del dibattito pubblico. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Binotto M., (2020) Framing migrations. Frames and representations in Italian news media. Mondi Migranti, 2: 47-62.

Boccia Artieri G. (2021). Networked Participation: Selfie Protest and Ephemeral Public Spheres. In: Della Ratta, D., Lovink, G., Numerico, T., Sarram, P. (eds) The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65497-9_21

Boltanski, L. (1999) Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Caliandro A., Gandini A. (2016) Qualitative Research in Digital Environments: A Research Toolkit (1st ed.). London: Routledge.

Cammaerts B. (2012) Protest logics and the mediation opportunity structure. European Journal of Communication, 27(2): 117–134.

Cantat C. (2016) “Rethinking Mobilities: Solidarity and Migrant Struggles Beyond Narratives of Crisis”, Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics, 2(4): 11-32.

Cantat C. (2018) ‘The politics of refugee solidarity in Greece: Bordered identities and political mobilization’, CPS Working Paper Series, 2018/1.

Castelli Gattinara P. (2017) The ‘refugee crisis’ in Italy as a crisis of legitimacy. Contemporary Italian Politics, 9(3): 318-331.

Cespi (2021) La Rotta balcanica 5 anni dopo. Report di ricerca: https://www.cespi.it/it/ricerche/la-rotta-balcanica-5-anni-dopo

Champ, J. G. (2008). Horizontal power, vertical weakness: Enhancing the “circuit of culture”. Popular Communication, 6(2), 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405700801977426

Chanial, P. (2022) Nos généreuses réciprocités. Tisser le monde commun, Arles: Actes sud.

Chon M.G., Park H. (2020) Social Media Activism in the Digital Age: Testing an Integrative Model of Activism on Contentious Issues. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(1): 72–97.

Chouliaraki, L. (2013) The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Chouliaraki L., Georgiou M. (2022) The Digital Border: Migration, Technology, Power. New York: NYU Press.

Cusumano E., Bell F. (2021) Guilt by association? The criminalisation of sea rescue NGOs in Italian media. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(19): 4285-4307.

Dastyari A., Nethery A., Hirsch A. (2023) (eds) Refugee Externalisation Policies Responsibility, Legitimacy and Accountability. New York: Routledge.

De Genova N. (2016) The ‘European’ Question: Migration, Race, and Post-Coloniality in ‘Europe’. In: Amelina A, Horvath K, Meeus B (eds) An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer.

De Genova, N., Mezzadra, S., Pickles, J. (2015) New Keywords: Migration and Borders, Cultural Studies, 29:1, 55-61, DOI: 10.1080/09502386.2014.891630

della Porta D. (2018) (eds) Solidarity Mobilizations in the ‘Refugee Crisis’. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

della Porta D., Steinhilper E. (2021) (Eds.) Contentious Migrant Solidarity: Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation (1st ed.) London: Routledge.

Dennis J. (2019) People. Power. Change. 38 Degrees and Digital Micro-Activism on Social Media. In: Beyond Slacktivism. Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00844-4_4

Diani M. (1992) The concept of social movement. The Sociological Review, 40: 1-25.

Donise A. (2020) Critica della ragione empatica. Fenomenologia dell’altruismo e della crudeltà. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Doudaki V., Carpentier N., Głowacki M. (2022) Mediating Change, Changing Media: Dimensions and Perspectives. Central European Journal of Communication, 15 (1(30): 1-14.

Dumitrica D., Felt M. (2020) Mediated grassroots collective action: negotiating barriers of digital activism,Information, Communication & Society, 23:13, 1821-1837, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1618891

Ferreira Da Silva D. (2001) Towards a Critique of the Socio-logos of Justice: The Analytics of Raciality and the Production of Universality, Social Identities, 7(3): 421-454.

Flyvbjerg B. (2001) Making Social Science Matter, Why Social Inquiry Failed and How It Can Matter Again.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fortarezza, F. (2023) ‘They Do What Institutions Should Do’: border solidarity in the light of an institutional crisis. Partecipazione e Conflitto, Special Issue XXX

Gamson W.A., Modigliani A. (1989) Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear

Power: A Constructionist Approach, American Journal of Sociology, 95 (1): 1-37.

Giddens A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Heller C., Pezzani L. (2017) Ebbing and Flowing. The EU‘s Shifting Practices of (Non-) Assistance and Bordering in a Time of Crisis. In: Hess et al. (Ed.). 215–235.

Hemmings, C. (2012) Affective solidarity: Feminist reflexivity and political transformation.

Feminist Theory, 13(2): 147–161.

Hernandez G.L, Drzewiecka J. A. and Greco S. (2023) Fortress Europe integrating through division: an actantial narrative analysis, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 0:1-15.

Isin E.F. (2008) Theorizing acts of citizenship. In: Isin E.F., Nielsen G.M. (eds.) Acts of Citizenship. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 15–43.

Lendaro A., Rodier C., Lou Vertongen Y. (2019) La crise de l'accueil. Frontiers, droits, résistances. Paris: La Découverte.

Leong C., Pan S.L., Bahri S., Fauzi A. (2019) Social media empowerment in social movements: power activation and power accrual in digital activism, European Journal of Information Systems, 28:2, 173-204, DOI: 10.1080/0960085X.2018.1512944

Leurs K., Smets K. (2018) Five Questions for Digital Migration Studies: Learning From Digital Connectivity and Forced Migration In(to) Europe. Social Media + Society, 4(1): 1-16.

Linardi G. (2021) La criminalizzazione del soccorso in mare dalla prospettiva delle navi umanitarie bloccate in porto.Diritto & questioni pubbliche 1:15-39.

Yin R. (1994), Case Study Research Design and Methods (2nd ed., Applied social

research methods series 5), London: Sage.

Masullo G. M., Wilner T., Stroud N. J. (2022) What Social Media Could Be: Normative Frameworks for Evaluating Digital Public Spaces. Social Media + Society, 8(4):1-11.

Milan S. (2015) When Algorithms Shape Collective Action: Social Media and the Dynamics of Cloud Protesting. Social Media + Society, 1(2) https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115622481

Milan C., Pirro A. L. P. (2018) Interwoven Destinies in the ‘Long Migration Summer’: Solidarity Movements along the Western Balkan Route in della Porta D. (2018) (eds) Solidarity Mobilizations in the ‘Refugee Crisis’. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Murray P. (2023) The externalisation of refugee policies: the politics of distancing in Dastyari A., Nethery A., Hirsch A. (2023) (eds) Refugee Externalisation Policies Responsibility, Legitimacy and Accountability. New York: Routledge.

Nikielska-Sekula K., Desille A. (2021) (eds) Visual Methodology in Migration Studies. Cham: IMISCOE Research Series-Springer.

Nikunen K. (2019) Media solidarities: The emotional politics of production and participation. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Nikunen K., Hokka J., Nelimarkka M. (2021) Affective Practice of Soldiering : How Sharing Images Is Used to Spread Extremist and Racist Ethos on Soldiers of Odin Facebook Site, Television & New Media, 22(2): 166-185 https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420982235

Orgad, S. (2012) Media Representation and the Global Imagination. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Pantti, M. (2015) ‘Grassroots humanitarianism on YouTube: Ordinary fundraisers, unlikely donors, and global solidarity’, The International Communication Gazette, 77(7): 622–636.

Ponzanesi S., Koen L. (2014) On digital crossings in Europe. Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture, 5 (1). pp. 3-22. DOI: 10.1386/cjmc.5.1.3_1

Ponzanesi S., Leurs K. (2022) Digital Migration Practices and the Everyday, Communication, Culture and Critique, 15(2): 103–121, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac016

Rieder B., Matamoros-Fernández A., Coromina Ò. (2018) From ranking algorithms to ‘ranking cultures’: Investigating the modulation of visibility in YouTube search results. Convergence, 24(1): 50–68.

Selva D. (2020) Il discorso della solidarietà: migrazioni, Terzo Settore e social media, Mondi Migranti, 2:121-139.

Silverstone R. (2006) Media and Morality: On the Rise of the Mediapolis. Cambridge: Polity.

Sontag S. (1977) On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sorce G., Dumitrica D. (2022) Transnational dimensions in digital activism and protest, Review of Communication, 22:3, 157-174, DOI: 10.1080/15358593.2022.2107877

Treré E. (2018) From digital activism to algorithmic resistance. Meikle, Graham, ed. The Routledge Companion to Media and Activism, Routledge Media and Cultural Studies Companions, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 367-375.

Trucco, D. (2023). The criminalization of border solidarity and the Law as a double-edged weapon. Partecipazione e Conflitto, Special Issue XXX

Watch S. (2022) The “solidarity crime” in the Maritime Alps. Exploring the effects of criminal trials on migrant solidarity networks. In: della Porta D and Steinhilper E (Eds.) Contentious Migrant Solidarity: Shrinking Spaces and Civil Society Contestation (1st ed.) London: Routledge.

Wodak R. (2020) The Politics of Fear. The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse. London: Sage.

Valdivia A., Aradau C., Blanke T., Perret S. (2022) Neither opaque nor transparent: A transdisciplinary methodology to investigate datafication at the EU borders. Big Data & Society, 9(2):1-14.

van Dijk T.A. (2016) Analyzing Frame Analysis. A Critical Review of Framing Studies in Social Movement Research. Analyzing Frame Analysis.

Valente A., Tudisca V., Pelliccia A., Cerbara L., Caruso M.G. (2021) Comparing Liberal and Conservative Newspapers: Diverging Narratives in Representing Migrants? Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 0(0): 1-17.

Van Leeuwen T, Jewitt C (2000) (eds) The Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.