Online Collective Action, 2014
Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media
Lecture Notes in Social Networks Series

This work addresses the gap in the current collective action literature exposed by the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) landscape by bringing together qualitative and quantitative studies from computational and social sciences. The book offers a rigorous and systematic investigation of both methodological and theoretical underpinnings and, thus, collectively promotes a symbiotic and synergistic advancement of the multiple interconnected disciplines in studying online collective actions. More specifically, the book is intended to illuminate several fundamental and powerful yet theoretically undeveloped and largely unexplored aspects of collective action in the participatory media (e.g., social media). Through in-depth exploration of relevant concepts, theories, methodologies, applications, and case studies, the reader will gain an advanced understanding of collective action with the advent of the new generation of ICTs enabled by social media and the Internet. The developed theories will be valuable and comprehensive references for those interested in examining the role of ICTs not only in collective action but also in decision and policy making, understanding the dynamics of interaction, collaboration, cooperation, communication, as well as information flow and propagation, and social network research for years to come. Further, the book also serves as an extensive repository of data sets and tools that can be used by researchers leading to a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the dynamics of the crowd in online collective actions.

Part I: Concepts, Theories, and Methodologies.- 1. Sentiment Analysis in Social Media; G. Paltoglou.- 2. Emotion Analysis on Social Media – Natural Language Processing Approaches and Applications; D. Das, S. Bandyopadhyay.- 3. Discovering Flow of Sentiments and Transient Behavior of Online Social Crowd: Can Social Insects be Far Behind?; G. Ghosh et al.- 4. Collective Emotions Online; A. Chmiel et al.- 5. Evaluation of Media-based Social Interactions: Linking Collective Actions to Media Types, Applications and Devices in Social Networks; A. Keller Gomes,  M. da Graça Campos Pimentel.- Part II: Applications.- 6. The Studies of Blogs and Online Communities: From Information to Knowledge and Action; E. Todeva, D. Keskinova.- 7. Using Contemporary Collective Action to Understand the Use of Computer Mediated Communication in Virtual Citizen Science; J.T. Reed et al.- 8. Socially Networked Citizen Science and the Crowd-sourcing of Pro-environmental Collective Actions; J.L. Dickinson,  R.L. Crain.- Part III: Case Studies.- 9. The Spanish “Indignados” Movement: Time Dynamics, Geographical Distribution, and Recruitment Mechanisms; J. Borge-Holthoefer et al.- 10. The Strength of Tweet Ties: How Twitter helped Frame the Egyptian Protests; R. Schroeder et al.- 11. The Arab Spring in North Africa: Still Winter in Morocco?; R. S. Robinson, M.J.C. Parmentier.- 12. “Hit the Road, Hijabis!”: The Polarized Context for Virtual Muslim Solidarities; R.S. Robinson.

Illuminates fundamental and powerful yet theoretically obscure aspects of collective actions in social media

Provides a common-platform for diverse researchers to share their research

Represents a valuable companion for policy and decision makers