The Role of Social Networking Sites in Civic Activism in Russia and Finland

This essay compares the role of the social networking sites, Facebook in Finland and Vkontakte in Russia, in organising civic activism. It is based on data collected about two successful campaigns mobilised by local residents against urban building projects in St Petersburg and Helsinki in 2009. Tho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europe-Asia studies 2012-10, Vol.64 (8), p.1375-1394
Main Authors: Gladarev, Boris, Lonkila, Markku
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Cities
Collectivism
Comparative studies
Consensus
Discourse
Finland
Grass Roots
Group identity
Helsinki, Finland
Information dissemination
Municipal governments
Online social networking
Part One: Civic Activism and Citizen Media
Political activism
Political Campaigns
Political debate
Political science
Political Sociology
Politicians
Public sphere
Residential buildings
Residents
Resistance
Russia
Russian Federation
Social media
Social movements
Social networking
Social Networks
Urban Population
Websites
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Summary:This essay compares the role of the social networking sites, Facebook in Finland and Vkontakte in Russia, in organising civic activism. It is based on data collected about two successful campaigns mobilised by local residents against urban building projects in St Petersburg and Helsinki in 2009. Though in both cities these sites were important channels for transmitting information and organising and coordinating the campaigns, their role was clearly limited in terms of impartial, democratic discussion of the issue of common concern: the sites were rather used to build and reinforce emerging collective identities and to create consensus within the movement. In contrast to the situation in Helsinki, Vkontakte also had a central role in creating and maintaining ties between formerly isolated campaigns against building projects elsewhere in St Petersburg, thereby helping to build a 'network of grassroots resistance' in the city. We thank Jeremy Morris, Natalia Rulyova, Vlad Strukov, Tuomas Ylä-Anttila, the anonymous reviewer of Europe-Asia Studies and the members of the Helsinki Research Group for Political Sociology seminar for useful comments on the essay. The research has been supported by the Academy of Finland.
ISSN:0966-8136
1465-3427
DOI:10.1080/09668136.2012.712272