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.
// Content
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
(contactchrisb /at/ plutobooks.com)
If you are interested in reviewing the book please (contactjonw /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
