Emerging Issues,
Challenges, and
Opportunities in Urban
E-Planning
Carlos Nunes Silva
University of Lisbon, Portugal
A volume in the Advances in Civil and Industrial
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Emerging issues, challenges, and opportunities in urban e-planning / Carlos Nunes Silva, editor.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4666-8150-7 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-8151-4 (ebook) 1. City planning-Information technology. 2. City planning--Geographic information systems. I. Silva, Carlos Nunes.
HT166.E473 2015
307.1’2160285--dc23
2014050364
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93
Chapter 5
The Impact of Information and
Communication Technology
on the Rise of Urban Social
Movements in Poland
Maja Grabkowska
University of Gdańsk, Poland
Łukasz Pancewicz
Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland
Iwona Sagan
University of Gdańsk, Poland
ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the relationship between the use of Information and Communications Technology
(ITC) and the emergence of social movements focused on urban agenda in Poland. The aim is to investigate
how and to what extent a growing body of smaller activist groups use opportunities provided by the ITC
to achieve their political objectives. The research results indicate that Web-based media have helped to
raise the profile of local initiatives and increased awareness of systemic urban issues between different
groups of grass-root actors. The findings of the chapter are based on the analysis of the Congress of
Urban Movements (Kongres Ruchów Miejskich: KRM), a broad coalition of smaller non-governmental
organizations and bottom-up activist groups, which use Internet-based tools to network. The results
indicate that the Web-based tools increase the members’ ability to connect and interact, consequently
improving the ability to coordinate joint initiatives, expand real-life social networks, and in the result
stimulate the rise of urban social movements.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8150-7.ch005
Copyright © 2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
INTRODUCTION
The question in what form and to what extent
citizens should have the right to influence the
process of urban governance and especially urban
planning became one of the topics of academic and
political debate in Poland. Such a discussion must
be viewed in the wider context of the development
and maturation of democracy in a country which
underwent a transition from a centralized mode
of planning and decision-making. This debate has
reached the point in which the declarations about
the participatory, collaborative, and deliberative
nature of planning procedures and the city management made by public institutions are not enough.
More and more different groups of citizens expect
to be the real partners in decision-making processes
that affect their everyday life. The objective of
this chapter is to analyse how social expectations
and ambitions clash with institutional practices of
social participation in urban planning and decisionmaking procedures and what type of social activity
emerges as a result. In our view, Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) contributes
to the mobilization of social movements, yet the
praxis and mechanisms of embedding this technology into the struggle for participation needs to be
explored deeper. In the chapter, we hypothesized
that ICT has helped to facilitate the organization
of the movements and their efficacy. Although
social mobilization is growing, the public sphere
in Poland is not ready and willing to absorb social
participation in governance processes. The different pace of processes of change in social and
public institutional spheres leads to an increase
in tensions. To test this hypothesis, we examined
the role that ICT played in the expansion of activities in the bottom-up movement alliances. We
conducted interviews and a case study to explore
the role of new tools.
Research and theorization of the residents’
role in the planning procedures and processes of
decision-making have a long and rich tradition.
The literature on the subject agrees that partici-
94
pation has to be treated as a continuous process
with different forms and stages. In the 1960s, a
participation ladder consisting of different steps
was described by Arnstein (Cornwall, 2011).
However, only recently appropriate conditions
and climate for change have arisen to intensify
the public participation debate. The crisis of
representative democracy, the growing social
contestation of the hegemony of a neoliberal
mode of development, and the ICT revolution are
standing behind the digital renaissance (de Vreese,
2007). In new democracies, these processes are
more pronounced, allowing the opportunity to
explore the interaction between new media and
the development of a grass-root activism.
The democratic system in Poland, as in other
Central-Eastern European countries, is strongly
based on mechanisms of representative democracy
and on a strong mandate given to public administration. The shortcomings of such a system are
particularly visible and commonly experienced
in conjunction with the political capitalism of
the post-transformation stage, in which the strong
players (economic entities, social groups, or individuals) exploit the lack of regulations and the
weakness of the state for rent-seeking. At the same
time the dynamics of ICT development, resulting
in the population’s rising access to the Internet,
create a fertile soil for the dissent activism within
the democratic society. The rich Polish history of
dissent activism inevitably influences the urban
arena, and quite often opposition movements even
more. However, the rise of contemporary civil
society movements is of a different nature than
the heroic revolts of the struggle for freedom,
such as the Solidarity movement. While social
movements in the totalitarian state took the form
of illegal resistance, the democratic civil society
organisations and activities are involved in the
state administration management (Raco & Imrie,
2000). Today Polish citizens are mainly involved
in the grass-roots activism on a local scale. The
very high ethical standards, unity around values,
and anti-politics of the national movements have

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
been gradually replaced by the plurality, fragmentation, and particularity of the local civil society
movements (Koczanowicz, 2003). Activities of
the grass-root movements and initiatives can
potentially intensify as a result of the ITC. The
urban social milieu plays a leading role in the new
forms of social mobilization and contestation.
The size, density and heterogeneity - immanent
features of the city as defined by Wirth (1938)
- provide especially favourable conditions for
political debate and engagement of individuals
and social groups. As observed today, the social
political revival often emerges in the virtual world
and then continues in the real world.
Among the ITC tools the Web 2.0 applications, mainly the social networking platforms,
are especially capable of integrating modes of
communication (DiMaggio, 2001). Internet
communication comes in very different shapes
and sizes, as the development of technologies
and platforms is an ever continuing process. ICT
based media, and any other mode of communication, brings together geographically distant people
who share similar interests. The use of media also
strengthens interactions among friends or family
members or builds a community network that
engages in issues concerning a geographically
defined neighbourhood (Preece, 2000; Smith &
Kollock, 1999). In particular, the last form refers
to the type of communication which has a direct
impact on the social activities focused on urban
development plans and investments. Despite the
local dimension of such issues, Central-European
cities are facing similar problems which help to
mobilize the new generation of movements.1 The
politicization and growth of urban activism in
Polish cities provides evidence that online interactions are important in the context of everyday
life as a way of exchanging information, yet this
is a very basic way of using the media. ICT based
platforms hold a promise of expansion of the sphere
of activity into the virtual forum, thus overcoming
the limitations of the place based politics often
determined by market powers (Adams, 1996). In
our case, we wish to explore how the concept of
‘scale politics of spatiality’ works in the context of
Polish grass-root movements (Jonas, 1994; Staehelli, 1994). Therefore, in this research we wish to
examine to what extent the Web-born ideas can be
turned into well organized, real life actions of the
activists. Also, we wish to explore to what degree
the Internet can help to overcome the otherwise
limited spatial focus of many movements and to
connect against dominant hegemonic narratives of
urban administrations or well established groups
of interest, such as urban development regimes.
After the systemic change in Poland the
planning paradigm based on the idea of co-management of city space and the broad coalition
of interested parties engaged in the decisionmaking process has been slowly replacing the
command-and-control central planning system.
As in most democratic countries, new forms
of planning – deliberative, communicative, or
collaborative planning – became the welcome
and desired styles (Allmendinger, 2009; Healey,
2003). However the participatory forms of
planning are being introduced mainly at the
level of official governmental policies such as
the works on the assumptions of the National
Urban Policy (NUP) (Ministerstwo Infrastruktury i Rozwoju 2014a) or more essentially on
the National Urban Regeneration Programme
(Ministerstwo Infrastruktury i Rozwoju 2014b).
What remains an open question is who – apart
from private development sector and public
administration – actually contributes to the
discussion on planning. The declarations of the
need for participation do not easily transfer into
the institutionalized practices. No earlier than
two years ago a comprehensive, systemic report
by the Institute of Public Affairs NGO, warned
that discursive, participatory decision making
is not considered a standard practice by local
governments. The participation rarely fits into
public institutions’ routine style of work based
on the representative democracy and efficient
bureaucratic apparatus (Kazimierczak, 2012).
95

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
The collaborative paradigm assumes that
planning procedures make it possible to reach a
consensus in planning decisions and public space
organization in agreement with the interests of
all engaged parties (Davies, 2013; Davies, Selin,
Gano & Pereira, 2012). However, the process
of reaching a consensus requires instruments
and procedures for negotiations as well as the
institutional culture open for public participation and numerous players’ involvement. In new
democracies, the traditions of social involvement
and participation are weak and shallow. Thus in
practice, the participatory forms of urban planning
and co-management remain in the form of official,
declarative statements. The Physical Planning
and Spatial Development Act of March 27, 2003
(Official Gazette no. 80/2003, position 717, with
later changes), is the legal act of imposing on local authorities the obligation to collect residents’
opinions on planning measures in Poland and
gain their acceptance of these measures. Local
authorities usually reduce the participation procedure to announcing the possibility of submitting
any citizens’ remarks by the fixed term. At the
level of developing the concept of the particular
plan, public participation methods are rarely used,
while officials fall back on narrowly defined set
of measures. If they are employed it is usually
for very specific plans like the city cycle paths
network. Furthermore, the local authorities and
planning bodies gradually started to treat the citizens’ participation in decision-making processes
as an obstacle and a factor which slows down the
urban management and development process.
Another significant reason for the reluctance
of local authorities toward the residents’ active
involvement in planning and decision-making
processes is the entrepreneurial mode of urban
policy. Adopted in quite a dogmatic way, the
neoliberal approach in the development policy
of Polish cities resulted in urban regime coalitions which are mainly controlled by investors,
developers, and political elites (Sagan, 2000;
Sagan & Grabkowska, 2012). The commercial
96
struggle for space does not leave too much room
for residents’ involvement and participation. The
role of the democratically elected local authorities
as guardians and representatives of local community in decision-making processes is critical
in such a situation. However, political practice
does not reflect the expectations. The domination
of investors and developers in the mechanisms
of urban governance is apparent in metropolitan
areas as well as in provincial cities, and increases
with the locally perceived economic difficulties
or degree of ambition.
Competition for investors is quite often pursued at the expense of local communities’ general
interests, although politicians would claim the opposite. Urban planners and architects are alarmed
by the fact that investors effectively shape urban
public spaces, often irreversibly, driven by shortterm interests of investment returns and political
re-election, rather than long-term concerns about
general urban quality of life for everyone. A widespread slogan among municipalities, not only in
Poland, is that of an ‘investor-friendly municipality’. However, this suggests the admission of a
dependency on investors’ goodwill (Sagan, 2005,
p. 53), and implies that municipalities will ‘bend
over backwards’ to accommodate their interests,
even if it means sacrificing other long-term goals
and ideals. This raises important questions about
the quality of democratic representation and the
participatory form of co-management of urban
space, the promotion of which was at the forefront
of the public political discourse at the beginning
of the post-authoritarian democratization process.
Reality looks quite different from those idealized
conditions brought forward by the propagators of
democratization in support of changing authoritarian regimes. The discordance of principles of
democratic equality and administration real-life
practices fosters politicization and social movements’ mobilization. As Rancière explains “politics is a statement of dissensus, it is the arena where
the principle of equality is tested in the face of a
wrong experienced by ‘those who have no part’.

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
[…] There is dissensus when there is something
wrong in the picture, when something is not at
the right place. There is dissensus when we don’t
know how to designate what we see, when a name
no longer suits the thing or the character that it
names, etc.” (Uitermark & Nicholls, 2014, p. 972).
New forms of citizens’ activity in the arena
of Polish cities, discussed in the chapter, provide
some evidence that deeper social changes are
gradually taking place. As our research reveals,
the new communication tools, especially social
networking platforms, are increasingly utilized by
the growing number of social urban movements
struggling to make citizens’ voices heard. This
research uses a qualitative research method, i.e.
individual interviews, to obtain knowledge on how
and to what extent the virtual networks influence
the political scene of Polish cities.
COMMUNICATION, COUNTERPOWER POLITICS, AND
MOBILIZATION OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
As the Internet-based ‘social networking’ technologies mature, this method of communication in
the virtual world is attributed to various feedback
effects in real life. Contemporary politics is no
exception as the networking potentially opened
new avenues in terms of spreading the message to
a broad spectrum of users. The second important
aspect of the digital revolution in communication
was the ability to rally and organize members of
various groups of interest, including the political
activists, with ‘significant ease’ (Castells, 2004;
Shirky, 2009). In theory, the steady progress of
communication tools associated with Web 2.0 or
proliferation of user-generated content became
important in enabling the growth of the virtual
branch of the real-life activism, ranging from
mainstream political campaigning (Bimber &
Davis, 2003; Williams & Gulati, 2007), social
networking associated with civic activism, albeit
with various results (Baumgartner & Morris,
2010; Zheng, Johnson, Seltzer & Bichard, 2010),
to more targeted counter-power activism utilizing
awareness rising, persuasion, or mobilization by
using Internet-based platforms (Juris, 2005; Van de
Donk, Loader & Nixon, 2004). Examples of such
applications include various social networking
sites,2 microblogging (platforms such as Twitter),
or video content sharing sites.3 The ease of use of
these applications opened their access to a broad
spectrum of actors who were involved in politics
and social activism.
Apart from established political groups, new
applications were also employed by less formalized social movements. They could be defined
as “sustained series of interactions between
power holders and persons successfully claiming to speak on behalf of a constituency lacking
formal representation, in the course of which
those persons make publicly visible demands for
changes in the distribution or exercise of power,
and back those demands with public demonstrations of support” (Tilly, 1984, p. 306). In theory,
the open nature of the new applications would
allow various groups of dissent to emerge within
the constituency. The idea of using the Internet
in mainstream and counter-power politics is not
new; many of the activist groups have been utilizing it efficiently for more than a decade for the
purposes associated with mobilization, sharing
of information, and campaigning. This notion is
strongly established in academic literature (Bennet, 2003; Bennet, Breunig & Givens, 2008). In
that sense, the technological advancement associated with opening the user-generated content
and networking sites theoretically created more
powerful tools for the ordinary citizens to organize.
Consequently, the idea of so-called ‘Facebook
revolutions’, which emerged in a wake of events
in Egypt, Tunisia, and Spain in 2011 prompted
some of the researchers as well as publicists4 to
hail the Internet-based communication platforms
as tools for the social mobilization (Iskander,
2011; Obar, Zube & Lampe, 2012; Schwarz, 2011;
97

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
Uitermark & Nicholls, 2014). It also confirmed
Castells (2007) concepts in relation to the sharing
of political information. The embedded nature of
social media reporting and opinion-making on
important international affairs, was confirmed and
highlighted by the recent wars in Gaza or Ukraine,
where the use of internet social networks was
embedded in the narratives of people and media
involved in the conflicts 5.
The theoretical groundwork has been laid by
researchers such as Castells (2004), who suggested
that Internet communication helped many groups
that built their identity around various political and
social projects. In that sense, the Internet could
be seen as not merely a tool but also as a helpful
mechanism for political mobilization. His further
analysis of Internet communication as a medium
indicated other aspects of the potential ability to
break with the monopoly for information-sharing
and one-way, mediated6 communication of the
traditional mass-media by creating a new space
for political expression (Castells, 2007). Apart
from technological prerequisites, Castells (2007)
saw the opportunity in the rise of what he called
a ‘mass self-communication’. This came into
wider effect with the development of the Web
2.0 applications, such as social networking sites
or microblogging.
Castells treated the unmediated nature of
the Web as an opportunity for movements on
the fringe of prevailing political forces to rally
behind their vision. Such mechanism would play
a role in shaping the character of the Web-based
mobilization of urban movements. Swyngedouw
(2009), Dikeç (2005), Deranty (2003) refer to
the unpredictable, spontaneous and momentary
nature of political social movements. Thus, the
Internet-based social networking creates the most
‘natural’ environment for the permanent rise and
decline of social movements. Internet makes the
communication, between different social groups
within the city, between the cities, regions or
countries easier and faster than ever before. It
facilitates high turnover of social movements in
98
political space. In the light of what was said, the
quite often criticized ephemeral nature of Webinitiated social mobilisations and activities fully
reflects the character of social movements as
such. The difference is that the dynamism of the
change is much higher.
The results of the use of networked forms of
digital communication are a subject of an ongoing
academic debate in terms of the application and
efficacy of these strategies.7 Such debates mainly
focus on issues such as the following:
•
•
Effect of the online forms of political
mobilization, especially in the context of
achieving measurable political outcomes
(through changes in legislation, successful
lobbying, and campaigning), as a result of
online activity;
The effect of the new tools on the practice
of the political activism, especially the
proliferation of the Web-based tools on the
character of engagement in activism and
politics.
The latter point applies to a number of issues,
including the ‘weak ties’ created in the course of
social engagement in a virtual sphere (Bennet,
2003). Critics point to the nature of political
activism associated with the Web, which can be
seen as relatively effortless and shallow. Such
activism is considered to be embedded within the
commercial logic of the operators of such tools,8
which focuses more on achieving the volume of
Web traffic rather than strong political attachment to the cause (White, 2010). Other critical
analyses warned against the overtly optimistic
assumption of the effectiveness of Internet-based
political activism. Web-based space is subject to
different sets of access controls. This can be used
either by the authorities seeking to police the Web
(Morozov, 2011) or by the commercial operators
of Social Networking Sites (SNS). Such questions
were raised when major SNS operator – Facebook – used its platform for a social experiment

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
through manipulating the news feed of its users
(Kramer, Guillory & Hancock, 2013), as well as the
technical nature of the platforms, which limit the
news feed, to avoid the risks of ‘news overload’.9
Equally, the issue of the digital divide, which can
be understood as unequal access to the Web-based
resources or in deeper sense the differences in
ability to exploit the Web, is a potential limiting
factor in exploiting the potential of SNS.10
Notwithstanding the critiques, the use of
digital social networking is expanding in terms of
the number of users.11 This trend is noted in the
countries which have good access to the technology and necessary digital literacy. For instance, as
of September 2012, the total number of the SNS
users in Poland reached 8.98 million, accounting
for 23.34% of the population.12 Yet, the effective
applicability of SNS in activism and political
debate is still a subject of ongoing discussion in
the academic literature. One of the approaches
considers digital social networking as a means
to expand operations beyond the social networks
that exist in the offline world (see Bennet et al.,
2008). Studies also consider these tools purely in
the context of additional channels of communication, being implemented into the service of social
activists as the technology advances (Castells,
2007). The empirical evidence, especially qualitative studies on the use of the digital networks, is
still relatively scarce.
ICT, CITIES, PARTICIPATION,
AND ACTIVISM IN POLAND
The development of ICT in Poland, a post-socialist
country dynamically changing in terms of socioeconomic and technological advancement, has
been quite intensive in recent years. According
to the data provided by the Central Statistical Office in 2012, 73% of households with at least one
person aged 16-74 owned a desktop or portable
computer, while 67% had a broadband Internet
access service (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, 2012).
However, that still leaves a fourth of the society
digitally marginalized. Moreover, the level of einclusion was the highest among households with
children and households from big cities or highly
urbanized areas, which confirms the urban-rural
divide. Interestingly, in all households without any
access to the Internet, over a half (57%) declared
a lack of such need. Other significant reasons
included lack of relevant skills (38%), high costs
of equipment (27%), and high costs of access to
the Internet (23%).
Meanwhile the connection between inclusion
in the electronic realm and involvement in urban
activism is strengthening, as the social networking
services and electronic media forums in Poland
“become extensions of the public sphere, where
decisions are made in the course of clash of various
arguments and attitudes” (Czepkiewicz, 2013).
On the same grounds, Batorski (2011) notices
that because the degree of civic engagement is
the highest among Internet users, it contributes
to further social polarization, since the already
socially excluded are deprived of access to information, social networks, and ICT as new tools of
social mobilization. Such exclusionary narrative
may be flawed, as it overstates the importance of
the digital media in political and social engagement. Still, it illustrates the growing evolution and
ingraining of the digital media in everyday social
landscape of Polish cities.
As suggested by Kosiewski and Przybylski
(2013), in Poland the city is increasingly becoming a subject of debate and political action
because of the unrestrained processes of (sub)
urbanization and emancipation of cities in terms
of self-governance and independence from the
nation states, as well as due to the overall sociocultural trend towards urbanity. Putting this
process in other perspective, one could say that
the Polish cities finally fully felt the effects of
increased measures of unbridled actions of the
market forces with a diminishing role of the State
as it gravitated strongly towards integration with
global processes of urban capitalism, such as
99

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
creation of the property markets, exploitation of
the property values and the rising role of cities in
production of capital. It resulted from the effects
of systemic ‘synchronization’ with the West and
had significant social effects unmitigated by loosen
social safety nets. This process had its particular
effect in urban dimensions with privatization, the
spatial chaos, rising conflicts over diminishing
public space. Such diagnosis was expressed by the
author of seminal ‘Antybezradnik przestrzenny:
Prawo do Miasta w działaniu’ (eng. Spatial AntiHelplessner - the Guide to the Right to the City in
Action), a guidebook to social activism (Pobłocki,
Mergler & Wudarski, 2013). Weak stance of the
local governments against the divisive and exclusionary neoliberal politics and ‘strong elbows’ of
the market formulated a strong primer of the Polish
urban movements, putting them close to struggles
of other ‘First World’ movements (Mayer, 2013).
What is more, the growing disappointment with
the quality of local governance caused by its low
efficiency and lack of public consultations and
debate often translates into a proliferation of
Web-related urban actions, as the relatively easy
and unmediated channel of transferring claims
and opinions of those who are unsatisfied. They
are usually institutionalized in the form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and they
do not necessarily focus on mobilization of local
residents per se, but refer to more general, often
city or regional, level of actions. The Web acts as
an agora allowing various groups to rally and be
heard. Consequently, Czepkiewicz (2013) argues
that ICT tools should be introduced by local governments in order to foster civic engagement. Yet,
he underlines that this should not eliminate more
direct forms of participation such as consultation
meetings or public debates, which are the least
exclusionary.
For the time being, the group that reigns
in the virtual agora are urban activists, a quite
numerous and by no means homogenous collective. According to the Klon/Jawor association
(Przewłocka, 2013), a possible classification of
100
all third-sector organizations in Poland includes
four types. The first, spontaneous activists (35%),
are the most informal organizations, with small
or no budgets and a flat hierarchy, often acting
ad hoc on issues of their concern. The second,
democratic entrepreneurs (35%), are similarly
non-hierarchical but with a better personnel and
material back-up as well as more focus on budget
planning, strategy-making, and external relations.
In fact they could be dubbed ‘mini-enterprises’ but
with a less corporate feel. Hierarchical activists
are the third category and can be characterized as
leadership organizations with the head person(s)
in a strong position and loose interrelations between other members, who typically work free of
charge. Lastly, NGO enterprises account for only
7% of all organizations; however, they have the
most systematic structure, clear hierarchy, fixed
premises, and usually full-time employees. They
operate through long-term plans and strategies.
Although this division applies to all kinds of
NGOs regardless of their field of interest, results
of our empirical research show a similar variety
of urban activist organizations.
Urban movements, the activism that was
focused and bounded by the processes of urban
politics in Poland have been on the rise for the
last several years, but are as yet fragmentary, often
based on personal contacts and small organizational level. Therefore the movements are quite weak
when viewed through the lens of traditional social
groups operating within the urban political sphere.
The rise of urban movements in a way emerged
as an evolution of previous forms of urban civic
engagement - heritage conservation groups, the
environmentalists to embrace the more political
aspect of the activism. One of the good examples
of this course of action is the case of a protest
for the tenant rights of reprivatized tenements in
Poznan and Warsaw - run by members of social
movements. Still, so far, the only effective largescale undertaking on a national level has taken the
form of the Kongres Ruchów Miejskich (KRM:
Congress of Urban Movements). Initiated by a

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
group of urban activists from the My-Poznaniacy
(We-Inhabitants of Poznań) association, it is a
grass-roots network of NGOs which take interest in
broadly defined urban issues. The other significant
act of urban activism influence were the works
on the assumptions of the National Urban Policy
(NUP), which were heavily inspired by the rhetoric
of urban movements (Ministerstwo Infrastruktury
i Rozwoju, 2014a). The KRM was in a way an
epitome of social movements, yet alone illustrates
the particular and highly visible example of such
mobilization. As Meyer and Bourdeau theorize,
the social movements embrace much wider tapestry of struggles, often less obvious than the
work of protest movements (Mayer & Bourdeau,
2012) also the mobilization is not exclusive to
the movements associated with left spectrum of
the political struggle. The KRM was considered
as an important element of emancipatory evolution of the urban movements and the ICT played
important role in this process.
The first meeting of the KRM took place in
Poznań in June 2011 and gathered around 100
activists representing almost 50 organizations and
initiatives from larger and smaller Polish cities.
The debate circled around several urban issues
and resulted in the formulation of nine urban
theses which concerned 1) inhabitants’ irrevocable
right to the city, 2) the significance of participatory budgeting, 3) the need for social justice and
counteracting poverty and exclusion, 4) the need
for participatory urban regeneration, 5) the need
for eliminating spatial chaos, 6) opening access
to the process of decision-making to inhabitants,
7) promoting sustainable development and limiting urban sprawl, 8) decentralization of national
institutions in order to foster nationwide urban
development, and 9) supporting sustainable transport according to the White Charter on National
Transport Policy and the Leipzig Charter. These
were hammered onto the doors of city councils in
the form of a media event in Warsaw, Wrocław,
Łódź, Rumia, Poznań, Sopot, and Gdańsk on June
29, 2011. Other outcomes of the first edition of
the KRM included the election scanner (skaner
wyborczy) – a survey concerning urban issues
conducted among candidates in the autumn local
government elections and the establishment of an
advisory body of urban policy by the president
of Poland.
The second meeting, with almost 200 participants, was held in Łódź in October 2012 and lead
to the elaboration of a list of comments in the
NUP draft, which were subsequently sent to the
Ministry of Regional Development as an official
document representing the stance of participants
of the KRM II. A year later, in October 2013,
KRM III deliberated in Białystok – a peripheral
Polish city located in the relatively less developed
East of the country. This time the meeting was of
a strictly working character and included refining
the comments to the NUP, discussion of the bill
on referendums and the elaboration of a strategy
of further development of the KRM. In summer
2014, as several members of the KRM announced
their run in the forthcoming local elections, a new
platform of cooperation emerged – Porozumienie
Ruchów Miejskich (PRM: Urban Movements Alliance). As of 21st July it consisted of election comFigure 1. ‘Not to the left, not to the right.’ - the
“apolitical” slogan of the PRM
Source: Porozumienie Ruchów Miejskich (2014)
101

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
mittees from 6 cities: Warsaw, Cracow, Poznań,
Gdańsk, Toruń and Płock. The idea behind the
activists’ candidacies is to focus on urban issues
beyond political party divisions (Figure 1), while
the PRM is to facilitate discussion and mutual
support in the campaign rather than propose a
common programme.
The observed tendency among urban social
movements’ activists to enter the mainstream policy
as governments’ consultants, or to run in local
elections as candidates, confirms the dialectical
tendency of transition from politicizing into policing (Uitermark & Nicholls, 2014). Incorporation
of the most active individuals or organizations into
the governmental power structures neutralises the
opposing movements, ensures control over them
and quite often helps to improve the PR relations
with the citizens. As Uitermark and Nicholls (2014,
p. 976) explain, the problem occurs when social
activists or civil associations “forgo their roles as
representatives of marginalized constituencies and
become agents that police ‘problem groups’ targeted
by the state (immigrants, youths, homless, etc)”.
They stop to stigmatize the structural discrimination or the hegemonic exploitation of power, i.e.
the reasons for inequalities, and focus instead on
managing particular social, individual problems,
i.e. the results of the structural inequalities. These
tendencies have already been identified on the
Polish urban social movements’ arena.
The PRM signalled an important shift towards
mainstream politics, as the key figures of KRM
embarked either on running in elections or supporting the campaign – still such move was considered
as divisive amongst the public and supporters. Out
of numerous discussions in public discourse, one
argument of Michał Wybieralski, actually blamed
the ‘slacktivism’ (Wybieralski, 2014), excessive
reliance on the culture of social media and close
knit circles of friends and associates rather than
popular support in dissolving the power of social
movements. Such opinion was a reaction to the
dismaying effects of the 2014 European Elections,
and seemingly more efficient, popular mobilization
102
of the right wing parties. The underlying processes
are more serious, and could be traced to the overall
condition of mainstream politics and difficulty to
‘break in’ into the well settled political scene. It has
to be said, the social media were not exclusive to
members of KRM. With the rise of popularity of
right wing politics, Internet was already embedded
as a tool integral to mobilization. ‘Ruch Narodowy’
Poland’s ultra-rightist movement, an assembly of
right-wing organization, formed in 2012, runs its
own social media portals with almost 120,000
followers (as of August 2014), web pages and
campaigns for local politicians. There is, of course,
no common point and no comparison, politically
and socially between progressive urban activism
and far right organizations; however, both sides
are currently aiming at gaining more support and
public visibility, while the ICT supplies them with
new opportunities to increase their visibility, break
into mainstream and access to supporters, and to
leverage their messages.
Because of the spatially dispersed character
of the KRM, its performance heavily relies on
electronic tools of communication. In between
the gatherings, activities are mainly limited to a
website, a closed discussion group on Facebook
(with 524 members as of July 21, 2014), and
mailing lists which serve to sustain and cultivate
social ties and fulfil self-educational functions.
Similarly, actions of individual members are increasingly Web-based, which has been evidenced
by the outcomes of our research.
The following section thus focuses on the
role of the KRM as a Web-based urban movement which contributes to the improvement of
participatory decision-making in Polish cities. It
is the first umbrella organization of this kind with
such scope in Poland and hence its significance
is important. As it is specifically a collective of
NGOs and activists, it could not exist without
the use of ICT tools. Therefore, the gathered
information concerns the impact of ICT tools
on effectiveness of the KRM as a whole, and its
chosen participants.

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
THE USE OF WEB-BASED
MEDIA BY URBAN ACTIVISTS IN
POLAND: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
Due to the lack of relevant literature or statistical
data, the applied research method which aimed
to reveal the importance of Web-based tools for
the KRM’s expansion consisted of conducting
and analysing in-depth interviews with four representatives of the KRM, selected in relation to
the following classification. All organizations and
initiatives which participated in the first KRM
meeting were categorized into two dimensions,
according to their function(s) and spatial scope.
The functional typology derives from classification of projects co-financed by the Stefan Batory
Foundation (Citizens for Democracy, 2014-09-22)
and includes four categories: think-tank (proposing
solutions to improve or enhance public policies),
pro-participatory (promoting civic participation in decision-making processes), watchdog
(monitoring public institutions), and advocacy
(counteracting exclusion and/or lobbying on behalf of minority groups). The considered spatial
scope was three-fold: microlocal (urban districts
or neighbourhoods), local (cities and agglomerations), and supralocal (national level). Having
classified all the KRM participants within the
functional-spatial matrix, the authors typified four
NGOs/activists covering all possible combinations: Komitet Inicjatyw Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
(KIL Wrzeszcz) from Gdańsk, Fundacja Fenomen
from Łódź, My-Poznaniacy from Poznań, and
Joanna from Warsaw (Table 1). It should be noted
that the primary classification was readjusted in
the course of the interviews, according to the
interviewees’ judgements.
Representatives of the NGOs and activists
participating in the KRM – Katarzyna, Joanna,
Lech, and Wojciech - were selected successively
on the basis of their active engagement in the
KRM group on Facebook. Additionally, two
interviewees, Joanna and Lech, are considered
to be key figures in the Polish urban movement
Table 1. Classification of the interviewed KRM participants according to scale and function
Function
Scale
Think-Tank
Pro-Participatory
Watchdog
Advocacy
Micro-Local
Komitet Inicjatyw
Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
Katarzyna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Komitet Inicjatyw
Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
Katarzyna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Komitet Inicjatyw
Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
Katarzyna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Local
Joanna Erbel
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Fundacja Fenomen
Wojciech
Komitet Inicjatyw
Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
Katarzyna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Joanna
Fundacja Fenomen
Wojciech
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Joanna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Supra-Local
Instytut Spraw
Obywatelskich
Wojciech
Joanna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Instytut Spraw
Obywatelskich
Wojciech
Komitet Inicjatyw
Lokalnych Wrzeszcz
Katarzyna
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Instytut Spraw
Obywatelskich
Wojciech
My-Poznaniacy
Lech
Source: Authors’ elaboration.
103

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
scene.13 Interestingly, the interviews revealed the
role of individual activists in the KRM rather
than the organizations themselves. For instance,
Wojciech updated his status as a representative
of not one but two NGOs, while Joanna defined
herself as a ‘free electron’, not attached to any
particular institution.14 Thus, with regard to the
Klon/Jawor typology, Joanna could be labelled
as a spontaneous activist, while Katarzyna and
Wojtek represent democratic entrepreneurs and
Lech may be identified as a hierarchical activist.15
Because of the respondents’ geographical
dispersion, the interviews were effectuated and
recorded on Skype, then transcribed and examined
with the use of a cross-case analysis method. The
questions concerned issues such as organizational
structure, use of ICT in terms of tools, type and
quality of content, update frequency and functional
barriers, as well as the perceived role of the KRM
in fostering participatory urban planning and edemocracy in Poland. Application of the cross-case
analysis means that all the gathered information
was coded into categories concerning specific
themes of interest and subsequently compared
and contrasted in order to obtain a cross-sectional
representation of accounts.
Concerning the functional characteristics,
all interviewees confirmed their organizations’
involvement in pro-participatory undertakings,
such as improving the mechanisms of public consultations or promoting the idea of participatory
budgeting. These tend to evolve into think-tank
projects (e.g. formation of a working group on
cycling issues within Fundacja Fenomen), often
combined with watchdog activities (e.g. monitoring of the city mayor and city council by MyPoznaniacy) and, occasionally, advocacy measures
(lobbying against unfair evictions of municipal
tenants in Warsaw by Joanna). Such functional
variety appears to exist regardless of the spatial
dimension. For example, KIL Wrzeszcz, founded
as a specifically micro-local organization in one
of the districts of Gdańsk, gradually expanded
its area of interest to systemic issues at the level
104
of the city and subsequently the whole country.
This follows from the growing consciousness that
any major changes in the (micro-)local scale need
legislative changes which can only take place
through the city hall or the parliament. An illustrative example in the case of KIL Wrzeszcz was
its struggle for the inhabitants’ right to propose
drafts of resolutions to the city council. The KRM
network served here both as a support group and a
forum for experience exchange, as similar efforts
had proven successful in other cities.
Most of the NGOs under investigation were
born out of informal groups or initiatives. Most
of them are also quite young. The eldest, KIL
Wrzeszcz, was established in 1989 under a different name but reached its current shape in the
mid-2000s. The other three date from the late 2000s
and thus since the very beginning they were able
to use the Web-based media to quite a large extent.
Lech (2012), leader of My-Poznaniacy, calls the
Internet their “basic tool for communication”.
The most extreme example of heavy usage of the
Internet is provided by Joanna, who declares to
have been “totally hooked to the Internet” since
over two years ago when she acquired an iPhone.
It enables her to stay connected without giving up
her highly mobile lifestyle, as well as document
her actions on the beat via immediate commenting
and picture posting on Facebook or live streaming the events and actions she is participating in.
New ICT tools make her much more efficient
strategic broker who is able to tie together more
social movement clusters in much more distant
locations in much shorter time (Tarrow & McAdam, 2005). The new techniques of vision and
sound sharing enable the activist to disseminate
the ideas, information and practices in a highly
educative and convincing way.
Similarly, the Web tools support the fluidity
of other organizations, some of which do not
have any solid structures. In the case of Fundacja
Fenomen, it is even “difficult to say how many
people are there” (Wojciech, 2012). According to
Katarzyna (2012), the changeability and flexibility

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
of urban movements is reflected in the popularity
of mailing lists as the most effective means of
communication. An additional reason for this lies
in the fact that websites in small NGOs generate
too many maintenance problems. Most of all,
they are money- and time-consuming, require
professional technical aid, and/or restrict the access of members with insufficient ICT skills to
adding new content. Therefore, the most common
applications, as indicated by the interviewees,
are mailing lists and newsletters, online forums,
as well as Facebook profiles and groups (Figure
2). The latter are also used ‘privately’ in order to
spread activist content among friends and family, such as by Joanna, for instance, who has over
2,700 ‘friends’ on Facebook. However, Wojciech
(2012) points out the content overload in the social
media and underlines the necessity of adjusting
the communication to make it “simple, brief, and
attractive to recipients”. A few other interviewees
described their attempts in replacing text with
short films.
The difficulty of proper communication with
the public is an issue raised by each one of the
interviewees. Among the major challenges in this
area, they name information overload (“excess
of information is no information”, Lech, 2012),
poor quality of content, limited accessibility,
and/or openness to the public. This is why much
attention and effort is allocated to publishing.
Nevertheless, the received feedback, measured
by the number of comments and likes as well as
attendance at promoted events and response from
local authorities or the mainstream media, tends to
be assessed as quite high, while the receptivity in
terms of web traffic is not given much importance
as it only registers the passive flow of visitors.
The respondents’ opinions concerning the specifics of the KRM generally concur. Networking is
considered to be its most important characteristic.
Joanna (2012) describes the KRM as “a group of
people with a common outlook on urban issues but
who engage more individually than via the group”.
The KRM is thus more like a common ground inspirational, educational, and supportive - rather
than a platform on which to do things together.
The stability of such structure is guaranteed by
its network pluralism: when one node fails, the
whole system remains intact. Everyone agrees,
though, that it is the individuals rather than the
Figure 2. Facebook fanpage of My Poznaniacy featuring “our right to the city” (nasze prawo do miasta)
slogan, as of 27th May 2013
Source: My Poznaniacy (2013)
105

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
institutions who matter the most in the KRM.
Wojciech maintains that the reason he took part
in the first KRM meeting was the willingness
to meet people who “do similar things and find
similar issues important”. Hence, the integrative
aspect of the KRM seems to have more than a
utilitarian meaning. According to Joanna, there
is a “sense of solidarity, belonging, and group
identity”. Most of the respondents indirectly
relate to the ideological narration that crystallized after the first KRM meeting. Back then,
participants were divided into two fractions:
“participatory and sustainable development”
(vast majority) and “neoliberal growth and development” (a few organizations including the
SkyscraperCity initiatives). Different outlooks
on controversial issues such as social housing
policy caused the latter to restrain from signing the urban theses and back away from the
KRM. Accordingly, it is worth underlining that
the KRM’s common identity is a result of an
exclusionary process.
As for the role of the Web-based media in
the KRM’s development, the Internet is simply
described as a “prerequisite” (Katarzyna, 2012).
Yet, personal contacts and communication are
also significant:
…it is not as if we only operate within the Web;
we also talk, we socialize, we travel to these different cities, put each other up for the nights, and
phone each other to discuss certain urban issues
… The Web is just another dimension of space for
information exchange, which does not depreciate
the other but is an addition which accelerates
certain processes. (Joanna, 2012).
The structure of KRM is very light and changeable, not capable of undertaking large enterprises
but it is the KRM’s merit that some of us were
finally able to put names to faces and that different people now do things together based on the
contacts established during the first KRM meeting
(Makowski, 2012).
106
Due to the reasons outlined above, the future
of the KRM is hard to predict. As Lech (2012)
puts it, the KRM is “an entirely new formula,
a project under construction”. According to
Katarzyna (2012), the KRM’s potential lies in
the added value or synergy, but to act more effectively it should be institutionalized in order
to “have a postal address and be a partner in
public debate”. This opinion is, however, not
shared by the other interviewees. For instance,
Joanna (2012) opposes “the view that to be
treated seriously one should have a domicile
and be registered”. She underlines the fact
that currently even a group of citizens may
represent their interests along the same lines
as any NGO and that this is definitely a new
phenomenon. In the view of Wojciech (2012),
the KRM should remain “global” and the actions it stimulates should be “local” as it was
created as a remedy for impediments to urban
movement actions at the national level, such
as the lack of regeneration bill or the electoral
law favouring large political parties. Similarly,
Joanna (2012) claims that:
[t]he aim of KRM was never only the change
of [national] law but also bringing about change
locally as well as exchange of experience within
the group which in turn should lead to integration
of the milieu and implementation of urban theses
[at the local level].
As the co-initiator of the KRM, Lech declares
that the KRM should develop spontaneously in
an evolutionary, not revolutionary way. Regarding possible improvements, Wojciech postulates
more frequent meetings in the ‘real world’,
dedicated to particular themes. In the words
of Joanna, “KRM is a Web-based platform,
but without relations and actions outside the
Internet, it would never work”.
In summary, the interview evidence confirms the significance of Web-based tools in
the functioning of the KRM. A wide array of
Web-tools, such as websites, newsletters, mailing lists, online forums, and Facebook profiles

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
and groups, is used for networking and disseminating knowledge as well as undertaking
common actions by the interviewed members of
the KRM. The influence of ICT on the existence
and evolution of the KRM is perceived by the
interviewees as essential, even if a number of
obstacles are enumerated, most notably technical (maintenance issues) and communicative
(problems with receiving feedback from the
public). However, despite the decisive role
of ICT, the respondents underline its purely
instrumental character. The social dimension
of the KRM, namely personal interrelations
between individual activists and NGOs, is the
unquestionable starting point. Consequently, its
relevance can be viewed as the added value that
brings together otherwise dispersed efforts and
allows the organizations to successfully shift
around different functions and scales.
The forthcoming local elections will open a
new episode in the role of the KRM and individuals involved in the alliance. It is not however
the first time when the activists move into the
politics. In Poznan members of the social movements already took seats in the City Council,
activists associated with the KRM were also
involved with mainstream party think-tanks.
What perhaps is more important is the saturation of the political sphere with internet social
media. Since the first interviews in 2012, the use
of social media sites, blogs or Twitter became
a standard amongst the mainstream politicians
or important local figures engaged in the city
politics. The significant differences stem from
the roles of social media: in mainstream politics they do become an element of elaborated
PR campaigns, the profiles of the politicians
are often run by their PR assistants. For social
movements, the ICT becomes the poor man’s
social campaigning tool as well as a mean of
communication, which confirms the embeddedness of the electronic media in every aspect of
life, including such an integral one as political
involvement.
CONCLUSION
The study of ICT -supported urban social movements development has exposed the process of
building social networks which are focused on
many local problems steaming from the lack of
equality and participatory forms of urban management. Our research suggests that Web-based media
helped to raise the profile of local movements at the
urban or national level. The exchange of knowledge
on the activities of other groups through websites
and social media raised the awareness of the systemic nature of the urban issues between different
groups. As a result, Web-based media played a
role in mobilizing different groups to coordinate
larger one-off efforts on particular issues, such
as examining the future Members of Parliament
candidates on their attitude toward urban issues
during the 2011 campaign. So far, Web-based
media have limits in fostering larger, long-term
strategic coalitions that could successfully lobby
for substantial changes in law or strategic planning
policy acts. They do not contribute to creating a
virtual community or niche environment for the
activists to operate at the fringe or outside of the
established neoliberal order. Instead, they augment
the actions on the ground. In that sense, ICT acts
as a new tool rather than a new reality for the social activists and members of the urban NGOs in
Poland. In addition, the communication tools did
not facilitate a new form of alternative governance
for the otherwise small and dispersed activist
groups. The networking occurs within the alliance;
however, communicating, sharing, and generating
urban related content is important as it helps to
form alternative urban discourses. Planning actions will more likely be determined through more
traditional forms of political involvement, such as
face-to-face contacts or direct communication.
On the other hand, with the dynamic evolution of
usage of Web-based media, high proliferation of
the Internet, and good technical literacy of NGO
members in Poland, such options cannot be ruled
out in the future.
107

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
The observed Web-based social mobilization
cannot yet be treated as the general change and
shift toward the participatory form of planning and
co-managing of urban space. They are still much
more individual actions than mass phenomena.
The unequal access to and use of ICT limits the
social representativeness of these initiatives. The
discussed critique of the fragmented and ephemeral nature of Web-born public activity cannot be
ignored. However, it is not the stable statistics of
big numbers which make them important. The
movements gather the most active individuals
who are aware of their rights. They know how to
articulate their hypotheses and how to attract public
opinion. Thus they create an influential force. The
ICT supports and accelerates the process of creating the rational spaces which are crucial for social
mobilisation. That is why the role of this type of
movement in counter-hegemonic discourses (Warf
& Grimes, 1997) is so important. It is also why
they are not ignored by the formal institutional
and political structures. The case of Polish cities’
political stage confirms this role.
The organization of the KRM and mobilization of social groups claiming to have the rights
to participate in urban development policy put
the problem of social participation procedures
on the Polish government’s agenda. In 2011,
The Office of the Polish President started to
work on the new law on cooperation with local
government for local and regional development. The consultations on the project ended
in February 2013. Most of the urban governments opposed the proposition to strengthen
and broaden the participatory dimension of
governance procedures. The Union of Polish
Metropolis strongly criticizes the project in
their official letter (Unia Metropolii Polskich,
2013). In the Union’s opinion, the proposed
citizen–government relationship is too direct.
In the statement, the representative rather than
direct democracy is emphasized as the essence of
local democracy. The attitude and reaction of big
cities’ governments shows that their perception
108
of social movements is still more influenced by
the authoritarian style of government than the
democratic practices of governance. One of the
aims of participatory concept of governance is
the incorporation of civil society associations
and social movement leaders through partnership. Co-opting civil society actors limits their
dissent and turns into efficient partners in social
management and control. The robust and long
lasting urban power regimes struggle to engage
social organisations and urban activists in their
programmes. The cooperation with local leaders
and civil society actors secure and strengthen the
coalitions of power. The clash of views on social
participation in planning and decision-making
procedures between hegemonic structures and
citizens illustrates the long and complicated
process of democracy-building in everyday
practice. The use of ICT tools, accelerates this
process significantly.
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Urban Movements: Grass-root social movements taking place in urban space and mainly,
although not exclusively, rising urban life social
problems.
ENDNOTES
1
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Entrepreneurial Mode of Urban Policy: The
neoliberal approach in the urban policy based
on the uncritical recognition of the primacy of
economic aims of urban development over the
problems of social policy and welfare issues.
Hegemonic Structures: Formal power structures and informal power coalitions having the
systemic, command-and-control power.
Internet Based Communication: Social
networking technologies, mainly using Web 2.0
applications to create Internet platforms of the
exchange of information to raise the social awareness and activism.
Participatory Planning: The planning procedures based on deliberative, communicative,
collaborative forms of achieving consensus among
all actors engaged in planning decisions.
Political Capitalism: The tendency to treat the
state controlled sectors of economy as the sphere
of the ruling political party interests and the labor
market for ruling party members in the state of
democratic political system and market economy.
Post-Socialist Countries: The countries being
at the stage of the systemic change, which struggle
to overcome the post-totalitarian system legacy
and build the democratic power structures and
market economy.
112
2
3
4
5
We use the term ‘urban movements’ to
characterize a diverse group of social actors
with diverse agendas, ranging from urban
aesthetics, urban mobility, planning and decision making to social issues such as access
to social housing. The urban dimension of
these issues provides a common ground for
these movements.
We follow here the definitions Boyd &
Ellison’s (2007) study, according to which
the social networking sites allow groups to
“(1) construct a public or semi-public profile
within a bounded system, (2) articulate a
list of other users with whom they share a
connection, and (3) view and traverse their
list of connections and those made by others
within the system” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
This includes the sites that allow the posting
of videos as well as services that enable live
streaming of events.
There were numerous non-academic articles
on the topic in the Western (mostly North
American) media. In the press, one of the
examples of the early accounts of the use of
social networking to contravene Egyptian
State censorship was described in Samantha
Shapiro’s article “Revolution, Facebook
Style” in the New York Times on January
25, 2009, followed by other accounts of
effectiveness of Interned-based media in
achieving political means; examples have
been summarized in Iskander (2011).
see Mason J. “Truth and propaganda: the
other two foes in Gaza’s war”, Guardian 10th
of August 2014.

The Impact of Information and Communications Technology
6
7
8
9
10
Castells (2007) quoted Bennet’s analysis
of the relationship between new media and
activism, which points to increased democratization and less of the “gate-keeping
standards” (i.e. the selection of the information to be distributed, control of the quality
of the content) associated with mainstream
media (Bennet, 2003; Iskander, 2011); the
concepts of the liberating role of the Internet were expressed by cyberlibertarian
publicists such as John Perry Barlow in his
seminal “Declaration of Independence of
Cyberspace” (Barlow, 1996).
See Bimber (1998) for an early debate on
the efficacy of ICT and politics.
White (2010) coined the term “clicktivism” as a reference to this practice. White
(2010) blamed the consumerist approach
that merged modern Web-based marketing practices (aimed at selling goods and
maintaining high web traffic volume) with
political activism for the loss of the latter.
software engineers of Facebook explained
the rationale behind the filtering of the News
Feed https://www.facebook.com/business/
news/News-Feed-FYI-A-Window-IntoNews-Feed
The debates on the “digital divide” extend
beyond the scope of this text as the term
broadly reflects the unequal access to ICT
by social groups, households, and chances
offered by them. Norris (2002) provides
early examples of such work. With increased
ease of access the Internet through new technologies and lowering the costs of access,
11
12
13
14
15
more studies start to point to other factors
such as unequal participation of the content
generation and use of Web 2.0 by different
groups (Schradie, 2011). This leads to issues
extending beyond access or digital literacy.
In October 2012, the number of Facebook - a
global leading SNS - user accounts reached
approximately 1 billion Monthly Active
Users. Analysis of the geographic distribution of Facebook users revealed the uneven
penetration of the services. In comparison
to Asia (277 million), Europe (253 million),
and North America (189 million), users in
regions such as Africa and the Middle East
account for 48.3 million and 22.8 million
users, respectively. According to the company sources, in August 2012 approximately
8.7% of accounts (83.04 million users) were
considered “fake” (sources: Facebook inc.).
Based on the Facebook monitoring data by
the company Socialbakers (2012).
As for more detailed demographic information on the interviewees, the group includes
two women (Katarzyna and Joanna) and two
men (Lech and Wojciech) aged from late 20s
and mid-30s (Joanna and Wojciech) to early
50s and late 60s (Katarzyna and Lech).
She claims that while “institutions are
useful”, she does not “need them to act efficiently” (Joanna, 2012).
While the chapter was under review, the
My-Poznaniacy association underwent a
deep internal crisis resulting in a split and
Lech’s resignation.
113