Order in disorder? : The role of information communication technology on disorganised violence within civil resistance movements

Sammanfattning

Nonviolent movements have been noted as one of the most successful forms of civil resistance. Thus, it is important for dissidents to maintain their nonviolent discipline to ensure their success. However, as communication technologies become cheaper and more accessible it is important to study how it can affect civil resistance movements. Existing research highlights that communication technologies such as the internet can provide faster information exchange in an unprecedented way for dissidents. More recent studies have considered the detrimental effects of incidental violence that are common within nonviolent movements. It shows that in the long run, this type of incidental, disorganised, unarmed violence can have dampening effects on future mobilisation. Yet, no previous research has sought to explain the direct role of digitisation on nonviolent campaign dynamics. Hence, this paper seeks to understand how increased internet access can impact dissidents’ decisions to maintain their nonviolent discipline. I argue that greater internet access should reduce disorganised violence intensity within nonviolent campaign events. To investigate this relationship, I employ a quantitative research design at a city-protest week level to look at 917 nonviolent campaign events between 2005-2012. Overall, I find some limited support for the proposed hypotheses that indicates greater internet access can reduce disorganised violence