ISSN online: 2221-1616

Bulletin of the Institute of Sociology (Vestnik instituta sotziologii)

Research Article

Yaroslava Y. Shashkova Doctor of Political Science, Associate professor,
Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia
yashashkova@mail.ru
ORCID ID=0000-0002-6126-7097
Dmitry A. Kachusov
Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia
dmitrij.kachusov@mail.ru
ORCID ID=0000-0002-8143-6214
Classification of network social movements in the cities of Southwestern Siberia regions.
Vestnik instituta sotziologii. 2022. Vol. 13. No. 2. P. 48-64

The publication was prepared as part of the RFBR-supported research project No. 20-311-90029 “Civic activism as a factor of the development of local self-government in modern Russia (on the example of the regions of Southwestern Siberia)”.

Дата поступления статьи: 17.10.2021
Topic: Civic engagement in Russia: institutions and motivations

For citation:
Shashkova Y. Y., Kachusov D. A. Classification of network social movements in the cities of Southwestern Siberia regions. Vestnik instituta sotziologii. 2022. Vol. 13. No. 2. P. 48-64
DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/vis.2022.13.2.789. EDN: UNANYF



Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of urban Internet communities of a causal nature in the regions of Southwestern Siberia. Communities are analysed by variables: the degree of their development, the number of participants, the goals and objectives set, the forms of activity used. These communities were identified in social networks and messengers such as VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki, Instagram, Telegram, as well as among YouTube channels and specialized sites. The informatisation of modern society provides citizens with more and more opportunities to participate in public life and establish horizontal communications. This is combined with the processes of raising the level of civic consciousness and the search for "workarounds" for participation in public politics. Both of these tendencies lead to more and more active involvement of citizens in the processes of self-organisation and participation in various associations. This leads to an increase in the number of urban problematic (causal) communities and in the number of their participants, the creation of new projects, and the massisation of their actions. There can be distinguished two main vectors for the development of such urban communities: urban protection and environmental. The first direction deals with the issues of arranging the living environment of citizens and creating "places of application" of causal civil activity, with problems of combining commercial, social, historical and cultural principles in the development of cities. The second one deals with the issues of protecting the natural environment, improving the living conditions of citizens, changing the consciousness and behaviour of people towards those more environmentally friendly. The set of methods used by all these communities is very wide: information campaigns in media and the Internet, filing petitions and appeals, organising of practical activities in the direction of their work, educating citizens, holding pickets and other public events, establishing contacts between civil society and government. It should be noted that there is no strict distinction between the communities of the two main problem areas, since the tasks they strive to solve (for example, the preservation of green areas in cities, the fight against landfills, etc.), as well as the composition of the participants, partially coincide.

Keywords

local self-government, civil initiatives, urban communities, social networks, network communities, self-organisation of citizens, city protection movement, civil activity, environmental movement

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