Paper short abstract:

In my presentation I examine the newness, or distinctive traits, of online-based collectives as an interplay between technological infrastructures and social processes of coordination and institutionalization.

Paper long abstract:

In my presentation I examine the newness, or distinctive traits, of online-based collectives-masses, crowds, communities of interest, and social movements-, which I identify as being the strong and hitherto non-existent interplay between the technological infrastructures that these collectives are embedded in and the social processes of coordination and institutionalization they must engage in in order to maintain their viability over time. As inadequate as it may be to conceptualize and analyze such web-based collective formations exclusively with social categories, it would be just as problematic to aggrandize technology or technical infrastructures into being the main and overriding factors of collective behavior and actions on the Internet. This is because the very technological foundations in which collective actions take place reveal themselves to be genuine social processes—be it as new general offers and infrastructures developed by the leading Internet companies or as independently-operated platforms that are created and further developed in the context of communities or social movements. None of these web platforms on which people communicate, organize, work and mobilize is merely a technological offer that users can utilize or redefine as they please. Instead, social structuring patterns are already embedded in the platform technologies themselves. All technical specifications—not only those of commercial corporations but also those created by communities or movements—have rules, standards and action guidelines incorporated into them that influence the group's activities in a manner similar to social institutions and that (co)structure the actions of their users in often very rigid ways.