REPORT:
What Motivates
Citizens to
Participate?
MARC H 30, 2016
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REPORT:
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Lucas Robinson & Jennie Phillips with Emma Brett Bishop, Saleem Daya,
Nicole Gladstone, Vanessa Ko, Peter Loewen, Ariel Sim, Claire Wilmot, Samuel
Wollenberg
--Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Purpose team for their help conceptualizing and crafting this research
project, as well as the Global Agenda Council on Civic Participation, which is chaired by
Purpose’s co-founder, Jeremy Heimans. Under the auspices of the initiative, Purpose was able to
make introductions to key organizations participating in the research. Special thanks also goes to
our survey partners: All Out, Greenpeace Spain, Occupy, the Digital Humanitarian network,
OpenMedia, Connected Development, Meu Rio, Humanitarian OpenStreetmap, CanadianMuslim Vote, and CrisisMappers. Further thanks to Benjamin Allen Stevens for the design and
implementation of our online surveys and Ignacio G. Rebollo for infographic design. Finally, this
research would not have been possible without the support of Global Affairs Canada for
providing funding for the Digital Public Square under which this research project was funded.
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary...................................................................4
2. Literature Review......................................................................8
3. Research Methodology............................................................12
4. Quantative Analysis.................................................................15
5. Qualitative Analysis.................................................................23
6. Limitations and Future Research............................................42
7. Concluding Remarks..............................................................44
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Executive Summary
Rapid technological increases in digital communications have allowed individual
citizens to mobilize, engage and influence in new and powerful ways, most markedly
in the beginning stages of the Arab Spring or in global digital response to the
2010 earthquake in Haiti. However, as activists, journalists, humanitarians and
international observers soon discovered, this form of civic participation often proves
as short-lived as it is powerful, with social media tools and campaigns seeing greater
success in generating short-term impact than in sustaining the extensive, in-depth and
prolonged engagement that necessitates lasting change. The Digital Public Square
is interested in understanding the motivations around civic participation online as
it seeks to engage large numbers of people in discussions around transparency and
accountability. From a digital diplomacy perspective, how online citizens can be
motivated to participate in civic action is a critical precursor to developing platforms
for engagement that are interesting, accessible, and informative.
Online civic action, for our purposes, is defined as any kind of online-based
activities aimed at assisting or improving a cause, issue, or value by
leveraging citizen organization for short- to long-term goals. This serves to
include local and community-based issues, or global social movements such as those
focused on climate change.
Guided by these observations, our research team examined what best motivates
citizens to participate in online civic action within the body of existing academic
literature. Five research gaps or areas were identified that required further exploration:
1) there is very little evidence-based research directly looking at what motivates
people to engage in online civic action;
2) the research that exists is focused on participation in “social movements,” too
narrow of a definition to encompass participation in broader civic action to instigate
social change;
3) the process of civic engagement itself, rather than the end objective, is often ignored
but may be enough motivation in and of itself;
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4) research-to-date has conflated the wide range of social media tools that citizens
employ globally as well as their potential for impact in early days of adoption, and;
5) deeper understanding is needed of the “period after the protest” or what sustains
individual participation following the civic action apex.
To address these gaps, the
initial stage of our research
design involved developing
a Spectrum of Online Civic
Engagement, Figure 1, to guide
the design, implementation
and analysis of our study.
Our spectrum plots the scope
of involved individuals from
political to apolitical activities
against the scale of impact
from locally focused to global
Figure 1. Spectrum of Civic Engagement
initiatives. Actions that are
primarily political such as lobbying governments through human rights campaigns, for
example are considered political, versus those focused on engendering social change
from the ground up or capacity building, such as digital humanitarian activities, are
considered apolitical. Along with plotting each interview subject on the Spectrum, the
nature (periodic or ongoing) and the level of engagement (moderate or full-time) was
assessed in order to fully understand motivating factors. The utilization of a mixed
methods research design was used for this study, where quantitative survey data was
used to support qualitative research. This approach allowed us to supplement gaps in
one data set with the other, ultimately strengthening and substantiating our finding .
The findings themselves are both substantial and applicable in practice for global
civil society organizations looking to understand and increase individual motivations
across three crucial stages of engagement: pre-engagement, initial engagement, and
sustained engagement. As seen in Figure 2, all forces of motivation are dependent
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upon the next. As such, findings discussed in this report should be applied holistically,
across all stages of a member’s involvement in online civic action, in order to both
effectively leverage the efforts of volunteers and, importantly, ensure that they do not
burn-out and lose motivating drive and passion.
During pre-engagement, nearly all interview subjects noted an existing personal
or moral interest or
stake in an issue, and an
inner desire to make an
impact. This finding,
combined with the
reported strong sense of
responsibility to finding
a solution amongst a
like-minded community
of individuals, provides
significant insight into
what specific recruiting,
advertising,
and
networking
strategies
organizations need to
employ in order to
attract
motivated
individuals to their
work. These results are
reflected
in
our
quantitative data, where
Figure 2. Stages of Online Civic Engagement
we find that individuals are
much more likely to engage with organizations which they have a moral
connection and are engaged in causes they personally care about.
Our research into motivations during initial engagement also identified a series of
factors that facilitate the transition from the desire to actual engagement. These
factors include: organization reputation for impact; an online presence that facilitates
easy transition from observer to participant, an appropriate network structure that
supports members without overwhelming or oppressing with a purely top-down
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approach; an offline presence through events or meetings to recruit, engage, and
build support through personal means, and the capacity for impact whether
demonstrated through reports or simply perceived as such by the individual.
Numerous tactics that organizations can employ to effectively encourage sustained
engagement from members were also identified in our research. While requiring
significant foresight and intentionality on behalf of organizations themselves, tactics
such as creating and sustaining a collective identity amongst members can be critical
for network cohesion and subsequently sustaining engagement. Counter to the
horizontal, leaderless culture often linked with online civic action, effective leadership
is recommended, highlighting the need for clear delegation of responsibilities, the
personalization of communications, moderating external and internal spaces to
ensure message cohesion and limit internal conflict, ullying, and polarization.
As online civic action initiatives and the reasons for initial and sustained engagement
are phenomena that are relatively new and understudied, additional questions and
areas for research remain. Especially important is the examination of whether
participation types of motivation vary by geography, scale of the initiative, history of
an organization, and by external contexts affecting the mandate of an organization
or its importance.
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Literature Review
W H AT
M O T I VAT E S C I T I Z E N S TO PA RT I C I PAT E I N O N L I N E C I V I C A C T I O N ?
In this report we examine what motivates citizens to participate in online civic action and identify
a series of research gaps and approach limitations within the body of existing academic literature.
We define online civic action to be: any kind of online based activities aimed at assisting
or improving an area by leveraging the capability of civilian organization for short- to
long-term goals. This might include local activities focused on smaller community-based issues,
or large-scale social movements such as Occupy Wall Street. Often there is a blending of online
and offline activities, as we see in the cases of the Arab Spring, and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap
deployments, but not always. There are many examples of short-run, one-off actions, which, though
frequently ignored, are also worthy of investigation, given their potential impact and the likelihood
that these lead to other types of engagement at different times. This “spectrum-based” approach
allows researchers to differentiate between types and levels of engagement without discounting
shorter or less-frequent engagement.
Our findings are as follows:
1. There is very little evidence-based research directly looking at what motivates people to engage
in online civic action. Psychological studies have highlighted that people are not usually
conscious of their motivations, but that individual choice and autonomy, combined with
behavioural modelling, a sense of responsibility and belonging to a community are important
variables (Pink, 2009; Geller, 2013; Green, 2014; Cross, 2013; Rogers, 2013; Robbins, 2007).
Socio-psychological research has looked at characteristics that lead to groups forming and
staying together, including collective identity, common networks and social order (Wheelan,
2005; Spottke, 2006). Civic engagement research typically describes the types of political
activities people engage in and the frequency with which they do so (e.g. Smith, 2013), but it
rarely directly focuses on questions of motivation. An emerging focus on digitalism examines
how digital technologies and tools potentially alter human behaviours. Here we see studies of
civic action on digital platforms through quantitative metrics such as membership, volume of
posts, personalization and messaging (e.g. Hollenbeck and Zinkhan, 2006; World Bank 2016;
Livingston and Walter-Drop 2014; Aday 2014). Ethnographic studies within a digital space,
which might be better suited to explaining individual motivations for engagement, are much
less common.1
2. The majority of what research there is, is focused on participation in “social movements.”
Our view is that the term “movement” is frequently too narrowly constructed, excluding
participation in broader civic action that aims to affect some kind of social change (see
1
Spottke, John. Ethnographic Reflection on G oup Formation in Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft”. Master’s
Thesis. University of Central Florida. Orlando, 2006
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definition below). Although movements like “Occupy Wall Street” and events like the Arab
Spring are certainly worthy of investigation, so too are the digital communities that form in
response to crisis, such as the “Crisis Mappers” network, short, local, and/or highly targeted
online activities that aim to – for example – have a sidewalk expanded. (The breadth of
campaigns hosted on Avaaz.org exemplifies this diversity.) Too often, researchers have focused
on highly political or visible “movements,” giving us little insight into what every-day citizens
are motivated by. Tilly defines a social movement as something that contributes to the creation
of public space, in which deliberation over public affairs take place (Tilly, 1993). That seems
a reasonable launching point for researchers of online civic action. There is an argument that
this should be expanded to include the existence or creation of a shared identity (Diani and
McAdam, 2005), if part of the goal is to ensure the continued existence of the group. From
this research, we hypothesize that expanding the scope of study beyond social movements
to civic action more broadly will lend deeper insight into understanding engagement online.
3. The mainstream press (and many researchers) seem to denigrate or ignore (either explicitly or
implicitly) short term and/or period online civic action. In practice, the spectrum of engagement,
between – on the one side – “active members” and – on the other side – one-off-participants”
(or “clicktivists”) is as wide as it is blurred. Whereas one person may be loosely engaged in fi e
to seven campaigns at any one time, another may be entirely focused on just one issue for years
(even decades). Motivations can be expected to change over time, or differ based on the political
dynamics of the country they live in (see World Bank, 2016; Asmolov, 2014). Our hypothesis
is that motivations for action can (and do) differ along this engagement spectrum, and that it is
important to understand these differences if we want to better understand patterns of engagement,
including how this engagement changes over time and/or in different political contexts.
4. The research we examined leads us to hypothesize that for some participants, the process itself is
an important part of what motivates them to engage. “Success”, to the extent that this has been
examined, is too frequently defined by measuring outcomes or consequences, when these are
neither easily measured, nor necessarily the main goals of those involved. Digital media tools
allow citizens to add an additional voice to traditional media coverage of events. Some research
points to the creation of a formed community out of this engagement, whereby people can act
and react to what had traditionally been a one-way “megaphone-style” transmission. Though
counterintuitive, perhaps especially for those familiar with the rich history of social movement
research (discussed below), the outcome for some participants is – arguably – secondary to the
engagement itself. Imagine a situation where a group of parents are engaged with their child’s
school. Their stated goal might be both to improve the quality of their child’s education, but
when we spend time analyzing their actions, we can see that they are also motivated by simply
wanting an effective channel of communication between them and school administration.
5. Trust and accountability are variables that we feel are worthy of further exploration.
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We know from the field of political science that asymmetries in accountability reflect
asymmetries in political knowledge. Researchers have found some evidence to suggest that
increased engagement online leads to reduced information asymmetries, and increased trust
in government (to a point) (Porumbescu, 2013). Open-data advocates (among others) have
argued for increased information sharing online, which has demonstrably led to the creation of
new institutions, with new norms, and greater agitation for change. Combined, a case can be
made that the very act of informing people can increase both accountability and trust. What
is missing from these studies is an understanding of where the motivation for participation
lies: why do some people act on this new information, where others do not? Why, given
inevitable bystander effects, would they take the risk of action? We hypothesize that exposure
to (new) information is a necessary but insufficient variable in explaining online civic action.
6. Much of the research-to-date has confl ted the wide range of social media tools that citizens
use online. This is reminiscent of early mass communications research, which confl ted the
potential impact of radio, newspapers and television, when in fact there is ample evidence to
suggest that each tool may play a different role (Aday, 2015). Many times, groups make “use
of all of the online tools that were readily available to them” (Theocharis, 2012, p.173), often
blending online and offline tactics (Harlow and Guo, 2014, p.469). Where some tools are not
available (e.g. YouTube was, until recently, banned in Pakistan), we need to better understand
the potential impacts of their being unavailable (in terms of outcomes, and motivation).2
Driven by a more precise understanding of how people are motivated by the information
(or emotion) transmitted by different online tools, some civic engagement organisations have
started to advise their members on how to adjust their social media efforts to have a larger
impact (see, for example, “Tweak the Tweet”, or the Red Cross’s work on social media use and
expectations in emergencies).3 We hypothesize that studying the application of online tools as
distinct entities will lend insight into how and why people are motivated to use different tools.
2
There is an emerging consensus within academic research focused on the role of ICTs within social movements that these tools are not determining actions, but rather affording actions – what Karpf and Livingston (2013)
refer to as “leveraged affordance”. An affordance, argue Karpf and Livingston, “is a quality of an object or environment that allows individuals to perform an action (Gibson 1977)”. “A well-designed doorknob, for example, has the
quality of an object that allows one to open a door…. These qualities do not cause actions – you could alternatively
use a doorknob as a convenient place to hang a jacket – but they make some actions more likely than others.” In
other words: the emergence of ICTs is not by definition leading to certain action , but rather they are affording certain opportunities. The more revealing piece of this debate is that in some cases, they are reducing the opportunity
cost of engagement: online participation in political discussions involves less risk, and lowers the costs of entry into
the movement. In short, it increases opportunities for mobilization where few, (or none) may have existed before. But
the grievances that drive these movements have a much longer history – Egypt’s revolution, for example, emerged as
a result of deep political, social, and economic grievances that stretched back decades. Given the general academic
consensus in this area, we would not advise further research focused on the notion that tools are in and of themselves
responsible for actions.
3
See for example Red Cross Canada’s recent blog post (http://www.redcross.ca/blog/2012/10/tech-talkcanadian-survey-on-social-media-in-emerg) or Red Cross US’s post at http://www.redcross.org/news/press-release/
More-Americans-Using-Mobile-Apps-in-Emergencies).
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7. There is a rich history of research focused on social movements, much of which is relevant
to the study of online civic action. Though our research highlights some modern differences
to, for example, the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960’s, it is important not to overstate the
ways in which new social media tools have changed modern social movements. The research
we reviewed suggests that today’s social movements tend to be structured similarly to those
of the past, and continue to rely on engagement beyond digital spaces. A leader’s personal
networks matter enormously (Tarrow 1998, McAdam 2000, Tilly 2005); these movements tend
to spread fi st through physical networks, and then periphery networks of leaders or various
“nodes”. Further research concerning the various structures and/or manifestations of online
civic action is needed, however, as there are some indications that digital technologies allow for
broader reach beyond traditional networks. Expanding on this view, we hypothesize that one of
the strengths of online engagement is that it can help to a) develop a sense of shared identity
among diverse members working towards a similar goal, and b) create positive social dynamics
between people which is in itself valued by the participants (linking back to point 4 above).
8. Research on identity highlights how little research has focused on the period after the protest
“moment” (online or offline), to better understand what effectively motivates people to remain
connected to the wider movement. New internet-based communication tools function almost
like echo chambers, where smaller and smaller numbers of participants remain involved, often
at the expense of less-active members. Too little focus has been given to the polarization,
compartmentalization, and radicalization of online communities as movements evolve (see
Aday, forthcoming). Long-term motivations are deeply rooted in reinforcements of identity
both as an individual and in a group that share common beliefs or traits. Shared identities are
sometimes a political goal, but cultures of connection also include traits related to age, gender,
education, place of work, and hobbies. Circling back to point one (above), to understand
long-term motivations, we need an ethnographic understanding of individuals and their
communities.
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Research Methodology
Scope of Study
Using the gaps identified in the preliminary literature review, we determined the need to understand
the a) types of engagement, and b) the factors that contributed to different forms of engagement.
Types of Engagement
The initial stage of our research design involved developing a Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement
(Figure 1) to guide the design, implementation and analysis of our study. As indicated, we define
online civic action as any kind of online based activities aimed at assisting or improving
an area by leveraging the capability of civilian organization for short- to long-term goals.
Our spectrum plots the scope of involved individuals from political to apolitical activities against
the scale of impact from locally focused to global initiatives. Actions with a political purpose
such as human rights campaigns, for example are considered political, versus those focused on
engendering social change from the ground up or capacity building like crisis response initiatives
in times of natural disasters are considered apolitical. Arguably, all civic action can be considered
as either actively political or latently political, hence this distinction. Similarly, we have classified
local initiatives as focusing on localized issues such as an online campaign to install bike lanes in
a community or build a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Global initiatives are
those that tackle worldwide challenges or provide international responses to national disasters, such
as Avaaz’s campaign on Climate Change or the Digital Humanitarian Network response to the
2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Figure 3. Spectrum of Online
Civic Engagement
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Factors that Impact Engagement
The literature review is situated within the Spectrum, through the identific tion of the following
four themes in need of further exploration, including sub-categories in need of specific qualitative
and quantitative analysis:
•
•
•
•
Participant Profile
◊
Basic Demographic data
◊
Organizational Affili tions
◊
Type of Civic Action
Continuum of Engagement
◊
Nature of Participation - One-Off / Periodic Regular / Ongoing Member
◊
Level of Participation -- None / Moderate (on the periphery) / Active (Very involved in)
Context of Participation
◊
Online vs. Offline Activities
◊
Tools Being Used and For What Application
◊
Repressive vs. Open Societies
◊
Surrounding Community
◊
Membership Type (adhoc, referral, etc.)
Factors influencing Moti ation
◊
Tools Available and Applications
◊
Leadership Relationships and Application of Online Management Tools
◊
Transparency & Trust
◊
The Process vs. The Outcome
◊
Network Structure (loosely connected, horizontal, distributed leadership vs. tight, vertical,
centralized leadership)
◊
Organization type (formal, informal)
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Research Design
This research project used an embedded mixed methods research design for this study, where a
quantitative data set was used to support qualitative data. As Creswell & Clark (2007) suggest, this
model is useful for supplementing gaps in one data set with another. This approach strengthens our
finding , making for a more robust, holistic study.
Survey
Quantitative data was collected through online survey of online civic action organization members.
Organizations were contacted for involvement in our study based on the following three criteria:
1) they are engaged in online civic action online (Political, Apolitical or Both)
2) they are a well-established and reputable organization, and
3) possess diverse membership (heterogenous).
Organizations were granted the freedom to sample their members using any strategy that suited
their data collection needs. This approach was used to increase engagement. Initial survey launch
started with three main organizations, and by the end of a two-week data collection period,
12 organizations had engaged, from political to apolitical aspects of our spectrum. The survey
consisted of 14 required questions, mostly Likert-type ratings, collecting participant demographics
and behaviours, and rationale for initial and ongoing engagement with a specific organization.
Due to user feedback throughout the initial stage of the survey, 6 optional questions were added
to assess an experience where the participant disengaged from an initiative, assessing rational and
perceptions. Details about the organizations involved, their sampling methods and sample sizes are
provided in the data analysis section.
Interviews
Qualitative data was collected through online, face-to-face interviews. Participants were selected
based on the criteria highlighted above for organizations, with an added caveat, that they had
to be members not leaders, administrators or staff members of the initiative. Previous
research, combined with discussion with project partners, suggested that most literature focuses
on perspectives of the “designers” or “leaders” of the initiatives. By using a participant-based
perspective i.e. focusing on the “users” of online civic action initiatives, research will enhance
understanding and better prospective approaches to motivating people to engage and sustain
engagement online, as well as generate insight and perspective on the broader area of online
civic action. A total of 12 interviews were conducted. Interviews were conducted remotely by
pairs of students from our research team, following all University of Toronto research ethics and
protocols. Areas of inquiry covered initial reasons for joining, nature of involvement, perceptions
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on organizational and operational attributes (leadership and organization structure, network and
community, communications, tools and techniques, and opportunity for impact), their history of
engagement, and desired level of engagement. Interview data was collected using live note-taking
and audio recording which was later transcribed into text. More details on the specifics of the
interviewees are provided in our data analysis section.
The Research Team
Research was conducted for the Digital Public Square, at the Munk School of Global Affairs,
University of Toronto with funding from Global Affairs Canada. The research team consisted of
two doctoral students as research coordinators, two project coordinators, two statistics analysts,
and six Master of Global Affairs student fellows. One of the research coordinators, ran the
fi st half of the project -- assessing and analyzing existing literature to formulate the literature
review. The second research coordinator, played a supporting role during this time. At the project
midpoint, research coordinators switched roles. One led the research design, data collection,
analysis and report writing portion. The previous research coordinator played a supportive role.
Quantitative Analysis
As of March 29, 2016, we received 1463 valid effective responses to the survey from 12
organizations. The organizations surveyed include: All Out, Greenpeace España, Occupy
Movement, Digital Humanitarian Network (DHNetwork), OpenMedia, Connected
Development, Sum of Us, Meu Rio, Humanitarian Openstreetmap (HOT), Crisis Mappers,
Standby Task Force, and Canadian Muslim Vote (Canmus Vote).
Organizations responded in one of three general fashions. First, invitations were sent to the full
membership of organizations’ supporters. Second, invitations were sent to a subset of the
organization’s members. Third, survey links were sent out over social media, namely Twitter
and Facebook. Our response rate based on the number of survey invitations is approximately
0.5%. While this number may seem low, it is well above the industry standard response rate
for open invitation, non-incentivized surveys. We note the convincing academic evidence that
inferences can be made about the relationship between variables in self-selected samples which
effectively match those derived from pure random samples (Andrews, Nonnecke and Preece,
2003, Krupnikov & Levine, 2014, Mullinix et al., 2015). In other words, we are confident that
the relationships and trends we report below are generalizable to online civic action.
Below, we indicate the number of valid responses per organization. We also include a
classific tion of whether these organizations are principally political, apolitical, or both.
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Organization
All Out
Greenpeace
Occupy
Digital Humanitarian Network
OpenMedia
Connected Development
Sum of Us
Meu Rio
Humanitarian Openstreemap
Crisis Mappers
Standby Task Force
Canmus Vote
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Valid Responses
499
667
11
2
9
22
49
144
11
3
38
8
Organization Type
Both
Political
Political
Apolitical
Political
Apolitical
Political
Political
Apolitical
Apolitical
Apolitical
Political
Table 1. Organizations Surveyed
Surveys were conducted on the Qualtrics platform. Respondents from each organization received
the same survey, however the surveys were customized to reference the name of their organization.
Survey Analysis
In addition to using our survey results to inform and contextualize the qualitative insights in our
re-port, we also conducted a set of standalone analyses of our survey data to generate further
insights on motivations for online engagement. It is our intention that these will also form a
subsequent standalone report. The highlights of this analysis are presented here. We note in
particular how these add to the findings in the main report.
Measures of Engagement
Our data analysis estimates two measures of engagement.
How can we assess engagement? The first is length of engagement. Respondents were asked
for how long they have been involved with an organization. This question had several response
catego-ries – 0 to 6 months, 7 to 11 months, 1-2 years, 3-4 years, 5+ years, 10+ years. We
convert this into months of involvement, taking the midpoint of each category. The average
engagement length is 42 months, or 3.5 years (sd=3.49). The modal category is 1-2 years, while
the second and third most common responses are 3-4 years and 10 plus years. A notable number
of people were also engaged for just 0-6 months. All of this is to say there is substantial variation
in length of engagement. We explain this variation through the next measure of engagement
below.
The second measure of engagement is depth of engagement. The survey asked several questions
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about how frequently individuals engaged in different types of actions. From this, we estimated a
principal components factor analysis of all these activities as a means to identify different types of
engagement. Two dimensions emerge from the data. In Table 1, we list the particular activities
which are included under each dimension.
As can be seen, there are broadly two dimensions of engagement. Most engagement is in activities that belong to an opinion sharing and influence dimension. This is the most important
dimension of participation, as it is about developing, learning, and sharing opinions, but also includes organizing events around those opinions. This is engagement which is mostly issue-based
or issue-targeted. It is also the kind of engagement which is easiest to do, as it can be done online
and often without concentrated and extended effort. The second dimension of engagement is organizational. It is about giving money to an organization and helping to organize events within
the organization. This dimension clearly exists in the data, but is much weaker than the opinion
sharing dimension. It is a secondary form of engagement. From each of these dimensions, we create an engagement score, which is the predicted factor score from the factor analysis. Intuitively,
these should just be understood as scores in which a higher score indicates more engagement on
this dimension.
Opinion Sharing and Influence Dimension Organization Dimension
Ask for others’ opinions
Organize people inside the organization
Visit the organization’s website
Donate
Read other people’s posts
Spread information to the community for feedback
Share my own ideas
Organize an activity
Participate in group conversations
Report and share others ideas
Encourage oters to take action
Write a letter to a government representative
Formulate a strategy for action
Communicate to the government
Organize people outside of organization
Attend an event promoted by the organization
Volunteer for a candidate or political party endorsed by the organization
Eigenvalue: 7.7, alpha: .91
Eigenvalue: 1.4, alpha: .77
Table 2: Two dimensions of engagement. The first dimension explains more variance in
engage-ment and also displays greater internal consistency.
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Dimensions of Engagement vs. Motivations
What are the reasons for the different dimensions of engagement? To answer this question and
understand engagement further, we contrast dimensions of engagement with dimensions of
motivation. Using the measures above, we identify three dimensions of engagement: opinion sharing
and influenc , organizational engagement and we reclassify the length measure as a dimension as
well. We contrast these variables with motivation by first highlighting the various reasons
individuals indicate influence initial engagement, and attributes of organizations contributing to
initial and sustained engagement. We then classify these into two different motivational
dimensions: Moral and Social, and Efficienc . Finally, we contrast these two dimensions.
Reasons for Initial Engagement
Why do people engage in the first place? Survey respondents were presented with several factors
that could affect their decision to engage with an organization. They were asked to identify their
top 3 factors. The factors were as follows:
•
They were running initiatives I cared about.
•
The goals of the organization aligned with mine.
•
I respected the reputation of the organization.
•
I had a sense of moral obligation.
•
Others I knew were involved.
•
It was easy to engage and be involved.
•
I thought I would learn and benefit f om being involved.
•
I wanted to lead an initiative.
•
I like the way (ORGANIZATION) is organized.
We demonstrate the frequency of these responses in Figure 4 below.
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Figure 4: Frequency of motivations for political participation
As can be seen in Figure 4, initial engagement comes out of a variety of reasons. First, there is a sense
of importance or concern, goal alignment, and moral engagement. Second, there is an element
of organizational respect or legitimacy. Third, there is a strong element of social engagement.
As can be seen, these dimensions also emerge when we perform a factor analysis on reasons for
engagement. Additionally, these findings are strongly supported by the qualitative evidence derived
through the interviews with members themselves.
Attributes of Organizations
What features of organizations impact why people volunteer? Our survey asked respondents for
their agreement or disagreement with several statements related to attributes of organizations that
may affect their involvement. We performed another principal components factors analysis and
found that two dimensions emerge.
The fi st, which is clearly the strongest, captures a very large number of items. It can be characterized
most as a degree of moral, political, and social engagement. The statements which make up this
dimension are:
•
I feel like I can make a real impact.
•
I feel like decision making in this organization is collaborative and inclusive.
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•
The stories and content the organization shares is engaging.
•
My friends and/or my family are involved in this organization.
•
I feel like I understand the goals and mission of this organization.
•
I feel like the ORGANIZATION’s community is trustworthy and works well together.
•
A lot of people in my wider social network are involved in this organization.
•
Working with ORGANIZATION is fun.
•
I feel like I acquire important skills and knowledge working with this organization.
•
I feel like the organization depends on me.
•
I feel like I have a moral obligation to this organization.
The second dimension covers organizational efficiency. The three items which make up
this dimension are:
•
I feel like conflict within the ORGANIZATION community is handled well.
•
I feel like I understand how this organization is structured and managed.
•
It is important to me that my contribution makes a big difference.
We label these two dimensions of motivation as the Moral and Social dimension and the Efficiency
dimension.
Online Civic Engagement Model
As a final stage, we consider how the dimensions of engagement are related to dimensions of
motivation and basic demographic information (age, gender and education). To do this, we estimate
regressions in which the dependent variables are length of engagement, opinion sharing and
influence engagement, and organization engagement. We include fixed effects for each
organization to account for differences in overall average levels of engagement for each
organization. The results of these regressions are a general model explaining engagement across
three measures described as follows.
Length of Engagement
Table 3 presents the factors related to length of engagement. We find that those who are older are
more likely to engage longer with their organization. Gender is unrelated to length of engagement.
Greater education is associated with a longer length of engagement. Importantly, both of our
dimensions capturing reasons for engagement systematically explain length of engagement. Those
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who feel more moral or social connection are involved for longer. Likewise, those who feel an
organization is better run are engaged for longer.
Variable
Age
Female
Education
Moral/Social Reasons
Organizational Efficienc
Intercept
Coefficient
0.030
-0.409
0.206
0.162
0.176
1.381
Standard Error
0.005
0.154
0.048
0.083
0.080
0.359
p-Value
0.000
0.008
0.000
0.051
0.028
0.000
Table 3: Determinants of length of engagements. N = 1401. Model is an OLS regression with
fi ed effects for each organization.
Opinion Sharing and Influence Enga ement
Table 4 presents the factors related to opinion sharing and influence engagement. Here, the
demographics of age and education do none of the work. However, we find that females are
significantly less likely to engage in opinion sharing. Opinion sharing is also predicted by both
moral engagement and efficiency engagement. Those who are morally, politically, and socially
committed to an organization are more likely to share their opinions. Likewise, those who believe
that an organization is efficient and well-run and who feel that their engagement makes a difference
are more likely to engage in opinion engagement.
Variable
Age
Female
Education
Moral/Social Reasons
Organizational Efficienc
Intercept
Coefficient
-0/003
-0.100
0.024
0.223
0.279
0.063
Standard Error
0.002
0.051
0.016
0.028
0.027
0.0120
p-Value
0.164
0.051
0.133
0.000
0.000
0.601
Table 4: Determinants of engagement through opinion sharing and influence. N = 1204.
Organizational Engagement
Table 5 presents the factors related to organizational engagement. Here, age and education are
predictors of engagement, while gender is not. Older respondents are more likely to be involved
in organizational activities, as are the better educated. But on the value dimensions, only moral
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engagement matters for engaging in organizational activities. Belief in the efficiency of the
organization is unrelated to whether individuals will take up organizational activities.
Variable
Age
Female
Education
Moral/Social Reasons
Organizational Efficienc
Intercept
Coefficient
0.011
-0.036
0.046
0.092
0-0.026
-0.727
Standard Error
0.002
0.051
0.016
0.027
0.027
0.118
p-Value
0.000
0.473
0.003
0.001
0.332
0.000
Table 5: Determinants of organizational engagement. N = 1204.
Model vs. Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement
Contrasted with our broader spectrum of online civic engagement, we find significant variation
across all types of engagement (political, apolitical, and both). We found that dimensions of
engagement vary across the spectrum. On average, length of engagement is 2.5 years longer
for political organizations than for apolitical organizations or those which are both political and
apolitical. Opinion sharing and Influence is more common in apolitical organizations than in
political organizations or those which are both political and apolitical. And, finally,
organizational work is more common in hybrid organizations than in those which are strictly
political or apolitical. Despite this, we find that the motivating factors are the generally the same
across each type of organization.
Summary
As we note in the main report, these results tie directly into the qualitative findings presented there.
Our Moral and Social dimension maps onto qualities we have observed that are linked to initial
and sustained participation, including feeling like one is a part of a community, having a chance to
socialize with others, being able to engage in a meaningful fashion, and having a shared identity.
In short, respondents need to believe they are a part of an organization and its mission. The
Efficiency dimension also maps onto the elements of conflict management and personalization.
Those who feel that they understand an organization, that the organization is well-run, and that
they are protected within the organization (moderation) are more likely to feel that they should be
involved and remain involved.
Further study in subsequent iterations of this quantitative research will enrich findings. In
particular, we wish to examine whether participation types of motivation vary by geography,
scale of the initiative, history of an organization, and by external events affecting the mandate of
an
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organization or its importance. We would like to explore within these dimensions to identify and
test our qualitative hypothesis around factors that impact pre-engagement, initial engagement
and sustained engagement. We also see great potential in deeper exploration of our Spectrum of
Online Civic Engagement, specifically diving deeper into the similarities and differences between
the factors that influence engagement and the broader dimensions we have identified.
Qualitative Analysis
Interview Participants
Our interviewees came from various styles of online civic action organizations, ranging from
digital humanitarian response, to music, to political accountability. The nature of each groups’
activities coloured the experiences of the interviewees. Digital humanitarians work in groups to
react to real-time emergencies in the physical world, calling on digital responders to support onthe-ground efforts through data collection, analysis and reporting that serves the physical
responders. Often in high-intensity, short timelines, the experiences of digital humanitarian
responders are often accompanied by stress and burnout. With fatigue and sleep-deprivation,
these communities are particularly touched by the need for moderation and safe spaces. Political
accountability groups work more moderately and consistently over time, proactively engaging
with political events and legislative processes. For them, there is an inclination toward the ‘long
game’ of meaningful political change. Other interviewees were from social groups mobilizing
people around culture, which are arguably the least political and appeal to participants seeking
leisure activities and creative outlets.
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The distribution of our participants along the Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement is
provided below in Table 6. As depicted, we interviewed 12 participants in total, five men and
seven women.
Table 6. Distribution of Interview Participants along the Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement
Figure 5 below represents the distribution of participants along the horizontal axis of the
Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement i.e. political to apolitical types of engagement. As can be
observed, participants were distributed fairly evenly between both ends of the spectrum. This
distribution is useful, in that it gives us a balanced perspective for qualitative analysis.
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Figure 5. Interviewee Distribution (By Gender & Totals) Along Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement
Interview Analysis
Interviewers were initially analyzed in student pairs by coding audio transcriptions and notes
taken during the interview to identify key themes that emerged from the data. Each pair
submitted a report which was then used as foundation for discussion in focus group to identify
overarching themes and findings for the larger study. A series of six themes were identified from
this focus group that have emerged as key variables linked to motivation in online civic action
activities. These themes include 1) Organization Structure, 2) Balance of Online / Offline, 3)
Perceptions of Success, 4) Moderation in Online Spaces, 5) Individual Identity and 6)
Community Identity. Each researcher was assigned to analyze one of these themes in depth
drawing from all interviews conducted (including and beyond their own) and correlate with
research literature, while situating their findings within the Spectrum. Using these finding, they
identified a series of tactics that online civic actions organizations can use to encourage
motivation to recruit and sustain engagement in online civic action activities. The next section
outlines the aforementioned themes identified as well as tactics based on best-practices uncovered
in the research.
Combining our qualitative interview data with the quantitative survey data collected, we have
broken down our findings into three stages of engagement. The first, pre-engagement,
describes the initial conditions existing within the individual that defines the desire to engage.
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The second, initial engagement, highlights motivating factors from the online and offline space,
along with organization specific attributes and behaviours that move individuals from a desire to
engage, to a state of action. Finally, sustained engagement, provides a series of tactics
identified in our research that encourage individuals to remain involved in online civic action
initiatives.
Figure 6. Stages of Online Civic Engagement
Pre-Engagement
As highlighted in the literature, an individual’s motivation for engaging in online civic action is
inherently interlinked with their identity. The initial engagement may stem from certain attributes
(I am a good person), activities (cycling), interests (environmental sustainability) or identific tion
with a group. Interviewees highlighted a series of pre-existing attributes of identity which lead
to engagement. First, nearly all participants noted there needs to be personal interest or stake
in an issue. Four subjects in particular said that they felt personally invested in their respective
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issues prior to learning about the organizations they eventually became involved with, emphasizing
how these particular aspects of their identity fostered pre-engagement motivation. For example,
one interviewee’s interest in climate change drove his involvement with one organization, whereas
another explained identifying within the LGBTQ collective led to their engagement with a Pride
organization.
Second, participants possessed an inner desire to make an impact. They suggested that
combined with already established interests, involvement is predicated on a personal guiding
principle. One respondent identified personal motivation as reflectin the desire to better what is
currently being done, while another offered a broader picture perspective when she said, “I only
take on … projects or do things myself that try to be a part of a positive future … If I’m going to
be away from my kids, I want my work to have meaning.”4,5 Finally we found that having a
sense of responsibility and desire to belong to a community are also influential variables
connected with engagement an initiative. This finding aligns with the literature (Pink, 2009;
Geller, 2013; Green, 2014; Cross, 2013; Rogers, 2013; Robbins, 2007).
These results are reflected in our quantitative study, where we find that individuals are much more
likely to engage with organizations with which they have a moral connection and which are engaged
in causes that they cared about. Indeed, when we asked more than a thousand online participators
why they engage with an organization, 61% agreed that “They were running initiatives I cared
about,” 52% agreed that “The goals of the organization aligned with mine,” and 23% indicated “I
had a sense of moral obligation.” Before there is participation, it seems there must be an alignment
of goals and values.
Initial Engagement
Our research identified a series of factors that facilitate the transition from the desire to engage to
actual engagement. These factors include a) attributes of the organizations, b) online presence, c)
offline p esence, d) the nature of the task, and e) the potential for impact.
A. Attributes of the Organization
Reputation of the Organization
First, our findings suggest that the reputation of organization may play a factor in engagement.
Participants expressed that organizations that are prominent and take up a significant space
online may maintain an advantage over membership recruitment than their smaller counterparts.
Reputation also extends to the ultimate impact and effect the organization is able to achieve, along
4
5
Interviewer asked: Before you undertake an initiative, how does the potential success influence your desire to engage?
Interviewer asked: What are the main attributes impacting your online civic engagement?
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with how well it manages and allocates finance, which can be determined, in some cases, through
websites such as Charity Navigator or GiveWell.
We likewise find this in our quantitative analysis. When asked to choose the top three reasons for
engagement, the third most common selection, made by 42% of respondents, was “I respected the
reputation of the organization.”
Type of Organization
Second, the type of organization is of importance, specifically if they are either issue-based or
identity-based. We define issue-based organizations as those who are seeking a policy or societal
change in a certain issue area (ex. Climate change activism, election campaigning). In issuebased organizations, interests and passions are identified as precursors to engagement. Multiple
interviewees indicated that their interest in a particular area led to identific tion of a movement
followed by online action. In contrast, identity-based organizations seek to bring together individuals
who share and seek to promote a common stated identity (ex. LGBTQ groups on university
campuses or persecuted ethnic minorities in diasporas). In identity-based organizations, individuals
identify with a collective in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. In these campaigns or
movements, an individual’s identity is not necessarily interlinked with the final end goal, rather
they see an alignment between their professional goals and values and those of the community.
In contrast to our Spectrum of Online Civic Engagement, identity based organizations would be
considered political where issue-based engagement could be either political or apolitical.
B. Online Presence
In the online space, participants contrasted how the experience online differed between different
types of engagement. For instance, one participant contrasted an experience in LGBTQ activism
versus another with a student movement. For the LGBTQ community, he explained much of
their activism involved online campaigns and disseminating online content that reflected the
personal identity and the interests of the members. In contrast, much of his participation in the
student movement occurred offlin, with online tools used solely for communication and
arranging meetings. Other participants reinforced this finding. An identity-based participant,
described how her online networks deeply reflected her personal identity; her willingness or
reluctance to engage in online civic action was rooted in having her personal identity and values
connected to her online networks. Another participant, an issue-based participant, used the
online space as a purely functional tool. Her involvement was disconnected with her personal
identity; moreover, she notes that she did not feel connected with the network. She explained
there was “…not a lot of connection on the network, I’m sure they’re all cool people. I was more
excited about the task at hand.”
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Our research found three main online factors that contributed to initial engagement.
Ease of Joining
First, the ease of joining was a recurring theme. Analyzing our surveys, we found that one-in-five
respondents (20%) indicate that they engaged with an organization because it was easy to engage
and be involved or because they liked the way it was organized. This was the fourth most cited
reason, following a sense of moral obligation, caring about initiatives the organization was
running, and having aligned goals with the organization. In our interviews, participants remarked
they were able to act on their pre-existing interests when they learned about these initiatives and
the respective organizations online. Having an easily accessible online mechanism to join the
movement breaks the barrier between having an interest in an issue and participating actively in
an organization or movement.
Types of Content
Second, effective and engaging content greatly depends on the aforementioned identity of an
organization. For identity-based organizations, online content that appealed to members’ personal
identities was common. Information that was humorous and easily shared, and related to the
community’s shared interests (ex. gifs, memes) was more commonly used and effective. Whereas,
for issue-based organizations, content with a greater emphasis on narrative or context, tailored
content and thought-provoking literature seemed to gain more traction.
Network Structures
Third, we hypothesize that network structures also influenced the culture of both organizations.
Identity-based organizations were more decentralized structures, and allow for a plethora
of different voices and identities to be included, but are deeply tied to the members’ personal
identities. Issue-based organizations were more hierarchical where goals, policies and often times
communications or marketing content was dictated more from the top down.
More generally, our quantitative analysis suggests that a feeling of moral and social engagement
with an organization is a principal dimensions of participation.
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C. Offline Presence
Organize Offline Events and Outreach
Although our original hypothesis claimed that online engagement could help to develop a sense of
shared identity among diverse members working towards a similar goal and create positive social
dynamics between people, which is in itself of value to the participants, interview respondents time
and again emphasized the significance of the offline space as a critical component to soliciting and
sustaining engagement, as well as reaching the broader goals of the organization. Each interviewee
noted the need for offline space in order to recruit, engage, and build support for their organization
or group through personal means. They felt that organizing offline events and speaking to
individuals was the most effective form of recruitment in expanding these networks. With this said,
each interviewee highlighted the necessity of using online space as a tool for building new and
old relationships, engaging with members, and fostering motivations in organizations themselves.
Although each interviewee claimed that online tools help share and expand their organization/
group’s network, the offline space was more effective in solidifying engaged, committed participants.
Thus, the online space acts more as a tool for continuing engagement and preparing or mobilizing
for offline en agements.
D. Nature of The Task
Strategic vs. Tactical
The nature of the task influenced whether individuals engaged online or offline, more specifically
if actions were strategic or tactical actions. In our research, strategic engagement was determined
to focus on goal creation while tactical engagement was found to be task oriented to reach those
goals. Interviewees emphasized the importance of offline work for achieving their strategic
purpose, and the online for tactical. As one participant explained “I see the offline stuff as when
we’re able to be strategic. When it’s an online facilitation, we are doing theto best we can with
what we have […] it’s very, very tactical.” Other participants echoed this sentiment — that
offline participation is found to be strategic while online engagement is tactical. However, for
individuals or organizations closer to the dimensions of digital humanitarianism or crisis
response, the strategic and tactical differentiation becomes more complicated. As their work, and
the work of many other organizations like them, can exist solely in the digital sphere, strategic
and tactical engagement becomes infused.
This differentiations between strategic and tactical efforts is supported by both social movement
theory and protest literature, with theorists such as Jeroen Van Laer and Peter Van Aelst, Zeynep
Tufekci, Christopher Wilson, Kevin Lewis, Kurt Gray, and Jens Meierhenrich noting the use of
the Internet in terms of shaping social movement patterns. From increasing participation to the
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organization of physical mobilization, the Internet has been described as a vital tool of contemporary
mobilization and that digital structures function as an effective organizational structure in times
of protest.6 This literature thus speaks to the use of offline participation as strategic while online
engagement as tactical.
E. Capacity for Impact
As described previously, one of the determining factors for initial and sustained engagement was
the individual desire to have an impact. We found individuals selected organizations based on the
their perceived capacity to make an impact. For this study, we consider impact as synonymous
with success. In contrast to definitions of success provided in our literature review (Gamson,
1975; Rochon and Mazmanian, 1993; Tilly and Tarrow, 1998; 1978), further research identified
notions of success manifest in different ways in the online civic action space.
Success is linked Personal Perceptions / Predisposition
First, it is important to recognize the nuance in individual conceptions of success and the linkages
with motivation. In particular, we found that personal beliefs, philosophies and an identific tion
with a specific cause was an additional factor in motivating involvement and framing success.
According to our surveys, approximately 54% of respondents stated that they participated in
online civic action initiatives because organizations were running initiatives that they cared about.
In interview discussions, we found that initial involvement in civic action initiatives were influenced
by existing occupations or vocations, and success is seen as having value added to what was already
being done. For instance, one of our interviewees discussed how prior involvement as a disaster
recovery planner motivated his involvement with the Digital Humanitarians Network and Crisis
Mappers.
Success can be Procedural
Unlike the standard organizational perception that success is goal-oriented, some interviewees
conceptualized success as procedural. That is to say that individuals’ conceptions of success did
not exclusively revolve around an end-goal such as policy change, but encompassed involvement
in the organization’s various activities or processes not directly associated with the organization’s
ultimate objectives. In particular, one respondent asserted that success was about “people doing
what they already do, but easier.” Interviewees highlighted that they wanted to see that what they
were doing was having an impact, and that seeing this impact motivates them to stay engaged (to
varying degrees) with the network over time. One participant highlights that impact is not explicit.
“I mean sometimes it is explicit, but very rarely.” Insofar, individuals can be motivated by the
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impact of their actions, even if it’s as simple as staging a protest, or building relationships, success
appears to motivate continued engagement.
Success differs Online and Offline
Figure 7. Necessary Factors for Sustained Engagement
Participant notions of success also differed for online versus offline spaces. Online “success” was
considered valuable with shareables such as inspiring videos, articles, offline victories, and events,
versus offline “success” which included the organization of protests, marches, sit-ins, or any other
form of participatory civic action. Offline engagement must be more than just a social gathering
or small event, members need to feel like they are part of something bigger and are contributing
to a larger goal.
There is only so much offline motivation a group can complete without enhancing it with online
action. These online and offline components rely on each other for effective community participation
and, subsequently, success.
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Sustained Engagement
The following section outlines the tactics identified in our research that contribute to sustaining
motivation in online civic action initiatives.
Customize: Understand Your Members
Organizations need to understand the needs and wants of their individual members. As one
participant emphasized “You have got to know how to sell stuff, who is your audience, and who
do you need to sell your idea. Who am I talking to, and who do I want to talk to? What is your
goal? You need to curate voice, audience, [and] communications depending on your audience,
especially in social media.” For organizations, this entails really understanding their members:
their skills, background and what they hope to achieve with the organization. There are multiple
online avenues for achieving this, including regular sampling or polling of your members.
Leaders and organizers should ensure that their members are receiving “value-added” through
their involvement and knowing exactly what this entails can only be determined through a deep
analysis of members. Consistent consultation and communication on what skills members aim to
develop and their broader, individual long-term goals with the organization is a necessary
component of this. As a result, creating mechanisms for understanding individual motivations is
critical for effective membership recruitment.
Envision: Build a Shared Identity
Creating and sustaining a collective identity is critical for network cohesion and sustained
engagement. As explained by one of our participants, a digital humanitarian interviewee,
“Identity matters – keeping people together, reminding people of what they’re doing and why
they’re doing it.” There is a tendency to think of people engaging in civic action as a coherent
group rather than an ad-hoc community – civic action initiatives, particularly online ones, are
made up of individuals with diverse identities and interests. She continues “having a personal
relationship with the network engaged in the initiative is much more impactful.”6 It provides a
common ground for relationship and objective building.
Developing a shared identity varies depending on the type of organization. An identity-based
organization may find it easier to facilitate the individual within the collective, versus issue-based
organizations which may have more diverse membership and, as a result, will require deeper
understanding of their membership and perhaps smaller, more targeted communication and
outreach strategies to accommodate this diversity. One participant with a digital humanitarian
organization, for example, explained how there was little connection on the network in general.
It was task-based and the individuals doing the task didn’t matter. She identified moderating
between the different types of people who engage is critical to maintaining a robust volunteer
6
Interview asked to describe the network.
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membership. She says, “You want people to be devoted volunteers and give all of their time, but a
lot of people are busy and they might have just the skills you need. [Work] on making sure people
can hop on when they have time and a concrete thing to do and go back to making dinner.” For
digital humanitarian responders for example, group identity is reinforced around supporting offline
communities of emergency responders working together to mitigate crises and offer needed life
support. For political activism groups, group identity is reinforced through ongoing reinforcements
of the group’s political goals with individual members’ political beliefs.
Tactics for developing a shared identity are varied and contextually-dependent. The literature
about personal motivation indicates that people require both a feeling of independence and
community support.7 Using group management strategies to allow for people to nurture their
individual perspectives, while prioritizing the group identity to accomplish collaborative tasks, is
one such example.8 One participant suggests that using online tools, particularly those that reflect
offline, personal networks, can help develop a sense of shared identity among diverse members
working towards a similar goal. In regards to his work in the LGBTQ community, he explained
how many different identities fighting different fights have supported one another online and
develop a sense of community. In many cases, building a shared identity falls under the guise of
effective leadership, which is discussed next.
As organization’s attempt to design a collective identity, can have negative effects at
both the individual and collective levels and can lead to exclusionary processes if it is too
narrowly defined. At the individual level, disengagement can occur if the organization attempts
to define the individual’s identity rather than the reverse and most notably in circumstances
of negative exchanges or feedback from peers or the wider community. This is particularly
visible in online tools, such as Facebook, which despite being used for civic action is still primarily
seen as a personal network. One interviewee noted that an individual can make the conscious
decision to alter their perception of their online spaces. This requires an active decision to
disassociate an individual’s identity from the tool. For example, individuals may use Facebook as
an online forum for discussion or as a recruitment tool. This is not always the case, as noted by
one respondent, who views her activity online - even when classified as civic action - as a
reflection of herself. Recently, she has reduced her engagement online to avoid criticisms that feel
like an attack on her identity. She says, “you have good wins and good conversations about the
things that are important to you and you go and post it on your [Facebook] … and then you are
open to all of this criticism and blowback.”9 In other situations, where participants function in a
“network of networks” situation, the desire to create a shared identity can become either too
narrow or too broad, resulting in unnecessary group and subgroup umbrellas that end up
restricting rather than encouraging participation.10
This finding is significant as there is a lack of literature on the individual identities within the
7
Geller, Scott. “The psychology of self-motivation.” TEDx Virginia Tech. Prod. TEDx Talks. 5 December
2013. Hay, A. H. (2015). Operational Survival. Infrastructure Risk and Resilience, 41–46.
8
Spottke, John. Ethnographic Reflection on G oup Formation in Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft”. Master’s
Thesis. University of Central Florida. Orlando, 2006
9
Interviewer asked: What causes you to disengage from online civic action activities?
10
Interviewer asked: Could you describe the networks engaged in these initiatives and your relationship to them?
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whole in the contexts of social movements or activism. This becomes increasingly more important
with online civic action, when an individual’s engagement is more malleable. Diani and McAdam
(2005) argue that social movements should include the existence or creation of a shared identity.
Leadership in particular has a significant role in determining and sustaining this group identity.
Social movements coalesce around clusters of leaders who develop a common identity, and spread
the movement’s message among their social networks (Tarrow, 1998, Tilly, 2005, McAdam, 2000).
Communications technologies and new media are making it easier for leadership clusters to
disseminate their identity to their social networks. Lim highlights how the Egyptian revolution was
driven by a core group of tireless leaders who did the physical groundwork for the movement,
and created a shared identity.11
Our quantitative results support these qualitative finding. We find that sustained engagement is
more common when individuals feel morally and socially engaged with an organization.
Lead: Provide Effective Leadership
Contrary to the horizontal, leaderless culture often stigmatized with online civic action initiatives,
participants highlighted the importance of leadership.
Clear Responsibilities, Delegate Micro-Tasks
First, respondents emphasized the need for having clear delineated responsibilities and delegated
tasks. One participant explained “if people only have a half an hour, they want it to matter. They
can’t get to know the entire organizational structure or system, they just want to act, so they want
to be led in that moment so that they can be effective.” Tasks should be clear, discretely defined
micro-tasks. “It’s good if you can keep everyone in the loop about general stuff and then have clear
tasks that people can jump in and do, whenever they might have time. [...] You want people to be
devoted volunteers, but a lot of people are busy, have discrete tasks that they can show up and
do. People can hop on when they have time and have a concrete thing to do.”12
Manage the Information Overload
Given the massive amount of information and communication afforded to civic action
organizations by digital tools, our research determined the most impactful leaders are those who
are able to filter the signal from massive amounts of digital noise, and translate this information
into coordinated action. One participant notes: “To be an online facilitator, I would refer to it as
‘multichanneling,’being able to have a discussion that is happening verbally and make sure that
people are not speaking for too long … also being able to pay attention and see the patterns. Being
11
Lim, Merlyna. “Clicks, cabs, and coffee houses: Social media and oppositional movements in Egypt,
2004–2011.” Journal of Communication 62.2 (2012): 231-248.
12
Interviewer asked: What do you think it takes to be an effective online facilitator?
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able to juggle and see patterns and streamline, that is probably one of the most important skills,
which is relevant in any circumstance in online facilitation, versus some more centralized ones.”
Personalize: Speak to Your Members
Many of our interviewees felt that organizations need to have a personalized, humanistic approach
both on and offline to engage and sustain members. Strategies include reaching out to members
through private messages, sharing videos that stir an emotional response, and sharing articles or
memes of interest to group members. In many cases, content that is more academic or professional
was not seen as well received as sharing videos, personal stories, jokes, or gifs, etc. Participants felt
personalization includes sharing feelings of appreciation and ‘being heard,’ but also that it goes
beyond simply targeting emotional responses from members.12 Our findings align with Carole
Mahoney’s tips to improve engagement in online advocacy communities, which suggests using
“personalization based on what topics [members] may be interested in to highlight the benefit to
the community.”13
Use Tools that Mimic Real-Time Interaction
The perception was that online tools and platforms that mimicked real-time and in-person
interactions were most effective. For instance, one participant noted “That while all of [the] initial
contacts were made through personal, one-on-one interactions, she sustained potential members’
interest on Facebook, through personal messages.” Although, email, Twitter, Google Hangouts,
Google Docs, etc. were all used by interviewees, Facebook remains the most preferred platform,
as it acts as an online tool that enhances and validates personal networks versus other tools,
which expand outside of personal, offline networks.
Socialize: Facilitate Relationship Building
The importance of group socialization consistently emerged as a key factor influencing sustained
engagement. One interviewee illustrated the importance of group discussions to achieve better
understanding of one another. He said, “Even when you are writing, it is important to talk to people
around you. You must understand people, you must understand what they are going through.
Right now, there is minimal conversation, but we would like to have more conversations.” In each
interview conducted, the importance of fostering personal connections, relationships, and sharedvalues offline were necessary in order to sustain participation online. Each interviewee mentioned
the need for socializing outside work (whether in an online or offline setting) in order to establish a
12
Cross, Jeni. “Three Myths of Behavior Change - What You Think You Know That You Don’t.” TEDx
CSU. Prod. TEDx Talks. 20 March 2013.
13
Mahoney, Carole. “Measuring Member Engagement in an Online Advocacy Community.” http://www.
votility.com/blog/measure-member-engagement-online-advocacy-community
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sense of community. Not only did socializing help to foster community and strengthen social ties,
but it was also found to increase productivity in the workforce. Noted by some, this experience
seemed invaluable and was considered a way to build necessary relationships.
One participant emphasized that the most important connections between members and their
respective organizations “happen in offline settings…then you go for a pint after a meeting.” For
organizations that exist solely online, one of our digital humanitarian interviewees still mentions
the need for these social interactions: “Where’s the virtual beer, where’s the virtual bar, and activity
for us to socialize to a certain point is critical but also the opportunity for us to work together.”
Thus, our interviews suggest the importance of building community and recharging outside of
one’s direct civic-engagement environment. In another interview, the only “beer and bar time” her
position offered with her organization was through Sunday Google Hangouts. She felt this form
of socialization was not successful in keeping members of the organization involved or interested
in the way that offline or face-to-face engagement can. Thus, we speculate that brief online social
interaction is unable to mimic needed offline social interaction. Also, participants who were more
engaged either politically or apolitically expressed the need for social time more than those that
were less engaged. Thus, we hypothesize the need for “beer and bar time” increases with depth of
engagement.
It is beyond a reasonable doubt that the importance of off the books socialization is a technique
that is needed in order to continue motivating individual citizens to continue participating in civic
action online in a sustained manner. Pink, Geller, Green, Cross, Rogers, and Robbins highlight how
individuals are largely motivated under conditions where there is individual choice and autonomy,
supported by a sense of belonging within a community. Socio-psychological literature of group
formation and group dynamics also notes the effects of community building, socialization, and
breaks outside of work as motivating factors for individuals to continue participating in civic action
online in a sustained manner.14
Moderate: Mitigate Negative Behaviours
Moderation of an organization’s online space comes in many forms and varieties, from obvious
examples such as comment approval on public-facing social media accounts or discussion boards,
to more nuanced moderation through the establishment and enforcement of a code of conduct
and online community values. For example, establishing social norms are an important tool to
equip dispersed and largely online groups with mechanisms to work together productively. In this
sense, online moderation can help to maintain an organizational ‘message’ that is consistent over
time and across sub-groups. Through our interviews, moderation was also described to entail the
creation and use of internal policies that prevent members overworking themselves in times of
intensity, such as humanitarian crises or disasters. Additionally, when organization open themselves
up to public comment and contribution online, especially when anonymity is allowed, social norms
or codes of conduct themselves may not be sufficient and public moderation techniques can
14
(Wheelan; Spottke)
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increase impact and effectiveness of online conversations and actions.
Also within the realm of moderation, interviewees emphasized the significance of strong support
systems and internal policies to expediently moderate and address internal conflict. In particular, the
disincentive of organizational conflict and its mismanagement appeared to be a strong predictor of
disengagement. Internal conflict ranged from disagreements surrounding how matters associated
with the core functions of the organization should be addressed, to “cyber-bullying.” There needs
to be sufficient protocols in place to voice concerns/complaints as well as a “safe space,” to express
concerns anonymously and comfortably.
Polarization
Components of the online space, particularly in algorithm-based social media platforms, have the
potential to become echo chambers, a feature that can be both positive and negative. These types
of online spaces often show users content that already aligns with a specific “profile” and thus
marketing and engagement strategies for organizations must be cognizant of the fact that much of
their network could be in smaller and somewhat isolated communities without much direct contact
to their future supporters, or in the marketing sense, customers. On the other hand, digital tools
can serve as an echo chamber for reinforcing and perhaps even overemphasizing the impact of
activities, helping people stay connected to their networks, and engaged with the civic action over
time. Facebook was noted as an example of both these benefits and drawbacks, since Facebook is
built on existing personal networks and aforementioned content algorithms. This largely points to
the fact that while the Internet, or the online space, is theoretically a place for new perspective and
informations, it can also become an echo chamber in which you only interact with similar people
and see information you are already biased towards.
At latent times, the echo chamber can be a soft mechanism of identity reinforcement that encourages
engagement over time, but does not demand constant attention and work on the member’s behalf.
The PEW center supports this conclusion through findings presented in Civic Engagement in the
Digital Age. The study found that even for individuals who are politically active online, 17% of
social network site users - representing 8% of the total adult population - are less likely to take part
in interpersonal political “chatter,” getting involved with issues only moderately.15
In this study, we asked if too many opinions or perspectives were likely to fragment and polarize?
The research shows that having multiple opinions and perspectives in a group is inevitable and,
therefore, it is more important to anticipate and set strategies on how to manage and mitigate the
potential for polarization. Interviewees noted how online space allows for a greater diversity of
viewpoints and stances. However, this didn’t necessarily translate into stronger activism. Instead,
having too many viewpoints sometimes lead to further fragmentation and polarization. One
participant highlighted the negative effects of “callout culture” online, or the ease at which online
users antagonize or escalate conversations, and its tendency to disengage community members.
15
Smith, Aaron. “Civic Engagement in the Digital Age.” Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2013.
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This exemplifies the need for a balanced strategic versus tactical engagement that allows for the
development of a respectful, cooperative community, along with other techniques highlighted in
this report, such as aspects of online moderation.
Aggressive language, cyberbullying and/or direct trolling
Offensive and aggressive language, cyberbullying, or direct trolling is common in all online spaces,
but also in civic-action communities. Existing literature has explored the role of online hate
speech in aggravating civil conflicts offlin . For example, the Umati Project of Kenya “emerged
out of concern that mobile and digital technologies may have played a catalyzing role in
Kenyan 2007/08 post-election violence.”16 The phenomenon of cyberbullying specifically has
emerged with the growth of social media platforms and is defined by the Canadian government
as mean and/or threatening emails or text messages, gossip and social chatter aimed at
damaging a person’s reputation, polling websites created out of malice, blogs and websites
where people post content ridiculing others, and so on.17 However, less research has been
conducted on bullying or trolling that occurs during otherwise benign online social
communications. When asked what disincentivises them from engaging in online groups, our
interviewees commonly noted cases of aggressive or unkind communications they received via
email or group chat when collaborating with the leaders of their organization or general
membership. In reflection, cyberbullying in the context of civic online action groups can be
defined as direct shaming or ‘calling out’ of certain members through group communication
platforms. It is characterized by a tense or antagonistic relationship among people, or an
aggression or microaggression from one member to another. On the other end, positive
reinforcement and signals of appreciation were noted as key factors for continued engagement
across our interviewees. This demonstrates the importance of mitigating cases of cyberbullying
for online collaborative groups and encouraging positive communications.
One participant talked in depth about cyberbullying as a “chronic” phenomenon within online
communities. Their community is currently running a series of surveys concerning governance
on this matter. In the past, digital counsellors were invited into community spaces to moderate
discussions and intervene when necessary. Counsellors participate in online communities during
collective tasks to help communities identify problem spots and set norms. At times, they can also
serve as ‘social police’ - identifying circumstances of aggression or bullying and helping to mediate.
However, while valuable pieces of the social fabric of the online community, counsellors have been
thrown out of the online discussions by other members of the community, who viewed them to be
meddling or interfering with the goals of the group. At a personal level, she noted that she often
disengages for human-related reasons over technological reasons like, for example, ‘when someone
writes you an email in a certain tone that just makes you not want to respond.’
16
17
iHub. “Umati.” http://www.ihub.co.ke/research/projects/23
PREVNet. “Cyberbulling.” http://www.prevnet.ca/bullying/cyber-bullying
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To demonstrate the counterfactual, whereby positive communications encourage motivation,
we can point to a statement one interviewee made: “I was definitely convinced that I could do
something and felt appreciated by my teammates because everyone made a conscious effort to
respect the opinions of others. The leadership was the kind that taught resilience and staying true
to what you believe in, and that pushed me to get more involved.” This sentiment was repeated
in several interviews, where general members were incentivized to continue or expand their
engagement when given recognition, thanked for their work, and generally communicated with
through positive language.
All of these observations are supported by our quantitative analysis, which finds that when individuals
are involved an organization that is well managed and which effectively resolves conflict, they are
much more likely to engage in sustained participation.
Digital-Burnout
Respondents also discussed the significance of internal engagement with volunteers to avoid feelings
of burnout and foster a sense of community. Within the digital sphere this was especially significant
due to the phenomenon of “digital burnout.” In particular, interviewees stressed the significance
of managing digital tools in an effective manner to avoid digital burnout. One of our interviewees
lamented an experience where he worked 75 hours continuously due to an emergency response
situation and no internal organizational mechanisms was in place to prevent this. When the issue
of “digital burnout,” was pursued further in the interview, cultural norms surrounding how digital
technology is understood and perceived within the workforce was identified as a significant issue. In
particular, they stated that users of digital technology are expected to do more and do it more often
precisely because it makes difficult tasks easier. Within this context, organizations need to invest
in engaging their personnel in honest discussions regarding time management and mandatory
breaks. Also important, however, is that through these discussions, organizations ensure that they
are optimally using the diverse skill-sets of their members by identifying where their skills are best
suited and delegating tasks accordingly.
Converge: Balance Online and Offline Engagement
Participants expressed the many benefits of online operations. These include a) improved member
reach, b) reduced barriers of communication enabling continued discussion and dialogue, and c)
increased sharing of information building participant knowledge, awareness and value regarding
a movement or event, thus influencing the global conversation or norms surrounding an issue. A
number of researchers emphasize that one of the major benefits of social media as a tool during the
Arab Spring was that it reduced information asymmetries that often prevent protest from emerging.
Tufekci notes that individuals who are unhappy with the political powers that be often underestimate
the degree of unpopularity, particularly in repressive societies, and online tools and techniques like
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interactive survey data, polling results, or discussion boards help facilitate this.18 In addition,
the online space can be leveraged to encourage increased engagement by creating
opportunities for participation due to decentralized nature of online organization, while
simultaneously lowering the barriers to entry for potential participants.
Balance Online with Offline
Yet, as previously mentioned, many of our interviewees noted that online participation alone
cannot sufficently drive or sustain a engagement and must be supplemented with a considerable
amount of offline engagement in order to continue interest, traction, and momentum. They
felt that properly balancing online and offline engagement and relationship building leads to an
increasing sense of belonging and involvement. Respondents felt that online engagement is useful
to sustain engagement for a longer period with fewer opportunity costs, but offline is critical to
ensure continued interest and substantive engagement over time. The exact form that offline
engagement will take varies widely between organizations and the context in which they work, so
potential solutions will also very. However, scholars in the growing field of online civic online action
are increasingly emphasizing the continued importance of offline meetings to sustain a movement,
with Tufekci highlighting the importance of this kind of groundwork in her study of the Egyptian
revolution.19
Customize the Balance
Although organizations may strive to find the “perfect balance” or “perfect storm” of online versus
offline presence, it is neither feasible nor useful to prescribe a “one size fits all” approach between
the levels of online and offline engagement — this relationship must be measured on a case-bycase basis. However, specific tactics that organizations can incorporate into whatever balance
they choose to strike, have been identified below.
Impact: Report on the Small Wins
Feeling like an initiative is successful is key in encouraging recruitment and keeping members
involved over time. Having too big of a goal can decrease motivation if there are no small wins
leading to the bigger outcome. One participant highlights that impact is rarely explicit and needs
to be emphasized as more nuanced, or incremental. As previously mentioned, digital tools can
create an echo-chamber to reinforce negative but also positive behaviours such as creating positive
18
Tufekci, Zeynep. “Social movements and governments in the digital age: Evaluating a complex landscape.”
Journal of International Affairs 68, no. 1 (2014): 1; and Tufekci, Zeynep, and Christopher Wilson. “Social media and
the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square.” Journal of Communication 62, no.
2 (2012): 363-379.
19
Tufekci, Zeynep, and Christopher Wilson. “Social media and the decision to participate in political protest:
Observations from Tahrir Square.” Journal of Communication 62.2 (2012): 363-379.
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feedback loops that reinforce the impact of online civic action. They are able to demonstrate
procedural successes very effectively, through pictures or content shared on social media platforms,
or through simple person-to-person communication online. One participant mentioned that “if I
could not see any changes happening I probably would stop. There has to be some sort of feedback
loop.” Take the time to highlight the small impacts individuals make through engagement.
Limitations & Future Research
As online civic action initiatives and the reasons for initial and sustained engagement are phenomena
that are relatively new and understudied, we encountered limitations within our study that suggest
a variety of themes for further research.
First, interviewees did not have to consider balancing online and offline participation in a country
controlled by coercive, violent, or repressive regimes. As such, our research does not question what
happens to the online/offline balance or factors that motivate civic action in times of protest,
decline, and political transition. Although there is already a significant body of work examining
both citizen and authoritative uses of the Internet in times of transition, the online mechanisms of
motivation leading up to this mobilization in multiple sociopolitical contexts could receive further
attention.
Second, some of the tactics outlined above will speak differently (or not at all) to organizations that
function solely online such as online fi st responders, crisis mappers, and crisis commons. In our
interviews with these organizations, the need for breaks and social events with colleagues outside of
civic action taking place was fundamentally vital in combating activist burnout. However, without
effective offline places where this can occur or little social dynamics between members who have
never met in-person, online-only organizations face additional hurdles. Our research was limited
in these types of cases, and additional research on these organizations exclusively could provide
additional insights.
Third, and in a similar vein, more research is needed on strategic versus tactical operations for
organizations that operate mainly online. Our findings foremost depended on the individual’s
participation in both online and offline channels. For digital humanitarians and fi st hand
responders (such as crisis mappers), the lines of offline strategic versus online tactical engagement
become distorted. Although engaging in strategic and tactical innovations is not limited to the
online/offline space, it works best under these clearly defined parameters.
Fourth, more research or case studies are needed on the applications of specific online tools and
their effects on motivation. Primarily, online tools were described as tactically different, with
some being much more effective in certain uses than in others. For example, as Facebook is built
on existing personal networks, it may not necessarily reach out to many people outside of your
ideological network. This drastically varies from online tools such as Twitter, which can essentially
be used to engage with anyone on the platform. Many interviewees also noted that certain types of
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online platforms felt more personal than others, which was largely seen as a benefit to motivation.
Thus, many used Facebook as an organizing tool because it felt more like a personal network.
One participant noted that motivational Facebook threads and individual private message could
motivate members longer than tweets or easily shared and consumed content. Research analyzing
the different kinds of online “social” platforms could also aim to determine whether or not there is
a specific platform or online technique that effectively addresses our second limitation noted above,
or online spaces for social engagement outside of civic action work.
Fifth, the notion of personalizing content for members could be explored further. Specifically,
further interviews and surveys could be used to linked with literature from Granovetter, Putnam,
and Bennett and Segerberg who question whether or not movements need to become personalized
in order to continue high levels of engagement, agenda focus, and network strength both on and
offline. Additionally, online sampling technologies could also be used to “market-test” certain
content with your members on a small scale prior to launching large campaigns.
Sixth, further research will undoubtedly need to capture voices that were hesitant to engage in our
research for privacy, security, or political reasons. This is especially critical in analyzing the role of
identity in civic action campaigns. Certain groups and/or social movements may not identify or see
much applicable value in academic or institutional research and as a result, do not offer their voices.
These voices are often critical to unpacking individual motivation and thus explicit reference to this
problem should be made known in the report. In reaching out to individuals and organizations,
it became apparent that campaigns specifically interlinked with identity based groups that have
traditionally been oppressed by established institutions and other systems of social control - such
as the Black Lives Matter movement or Idle No More - were more difficult perspectives to obtain.
Additionally, there is anecdotal evidence about the rising prevalence of survey fatigue, which
may need to be addressed in methodological design (from Ackland, O’Neil).
Seventh, it’s worth noting that privilege is a caveat to frequency in online participation. In other words,
how much access one has to online tools and networks limits the extent to which personalization
and targeted approaches can happen. This question of the digital divide is definitely a limiting
factor in our current research. As stated in the research summary, the role of ICTs within social
movements is that these tools are not determining actions, but rather affording actions – what
Karpf and Livingston (2013) refer to as “leveraged affordance.” Our interviews reflect this, by
“reducing the opportunity cost of engagement: online participation in political discussions involves
less risk, and lowers the costs of entry into the movement. In short, it increases opportunities for
mobilization where few, (or none) may have existed before.
Finally, there were a few logistical and resource limitations. First, it is possible that the location of
the interview had an effect on some of the interviewees and should be noted as a limitation on
finding. For example, Interviewee 2 participated in the interview while seated at their work desk,
while their boss and colleagues were sitting in the same office. It is likely that their responses to
some questions may have differed if they gave the interview in a private place. For the future, it
should be added to the interview protocol to suggest a quiet, personal space. Second, many
participants were staff members in online civic action groups.
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This limitation was largely controlled against, since the participants were volunteers with other
online groups and interviewees were asked to focus their responses on their volunteer activities.
Conclusion
Sustained engagement looks different today than it did for civic action in the past, thanks to the
decentralizing power of digital technologies as a tool for mobilization. The research outlined above
shows that these decentralized networks pose both challenges and opportunities for motivation
that organizations and leaders should be acutely aware of. Effective leadership demands exploring
and taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by digital technologies while also managing
information overload and other challenges unique to the online environment. Leadership in
dispersed, online, civic action organizations, when well managed, can potentially grow the reach
and improve the resilience of the organization.
Our results elucidate tactics that organizations or initiatives can employ to ensure success in
reaching their respective goals. Although there were clear lessons learned that we could
extrapolate from both our surveys and interviews, we still found substantial variability in the
repertoire of strategies that various initiatives can employ in ensuring success. The most significant
lesson that can be extrapolated from our research is the significance of catering to the individual in
various ways. Ultimately an initiative’s most powerful resource is its membership and leveraging this
resource is critical to success. Keeping this in mind, drawing from the recommendations above, the
following are possible steps that organizations/initiatives can take to leveraging their membership:
•
Make the “seemingly mundane” procedures more accessible
•
Create spaces and policies that promote engagement and foster a sense of community
•
Create spaces and policies for expedient conflict esolution among members
•
Effectively motivate and manage staff to ensure skills are optimally used through measures like
micro-tasking
•
Provide spaces and opportunities for offline interaction and com unication
•
Personalize content to maintain a distinct “human touch”
•
Appeal to individual preferences, goals and aims
•
Celebrate the small successes as much as the big ones
In taking these steps, civic action organizations and initiatives can more effectively ensure that
they meet their respective objectives. Throughout all of these steps, the need for “connected” and
“disconnected” balance is key. As discussed throughout our individual research and interviews, it
has been established that individual engagement cannot be sustained solely online, but must hold
a considerable amount of offline participation in order to foster healthy, sustained engagement.
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Thus, increased participation and motivation requires a deeper understanding of the symbiotic
nature of online/offline systems of involvement that include social occasions to foster personal
relationships and offline b eaks to stave off digital burnout.
Likewise, individual and group identity must receive a similar treatment, as an individual may
use their social tools as a means to protect identity, withdraw and censor if they feel they are
being attacked for their part in the collective. Whereas too fluid a collective identity can result in
organizational ambiguity and disintegration, as seen with the Occupy Wall Street movement. On
the one hand a collective identity is critical to the maintenance and pursuit of an organization’s
goal; on the other hand, it is clear modulating that identity with those of individuals who make
up the collective is necessary to facilitate sustained engagement. Further research is clearly needed
on the moment of physical protest or the peak of participation, to understand what sustains that
connection and motivation to engage over the longer-term. The substance of this research would
make for a valuable follow-on study.
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