Engagement as Connection/Connectivity: Online/Offline Intersections at a University Sustainability Office

• In Event: Engagement and Public Relations

Abstract

This article extends mainstream understandings of strategic versus dialogic engagement by tracing the use of social media by organizations. Specifically, I draw from a yearlong ethnography with the Sustainability Office at a large Midwestern university to examine how online engagement is shaped by offline identities, and offline practices are influenced by online engagement. I suggest a “connection/connectivity” lens to engagement, constituted by four interconnected narrative threads—connecting relationally/institutionally, connecting inside/outside, political connections, and cyborg connectivity. I show how these narrative threads problematize the dichotomy between strategic and dialogic modes of engagement, and recognize the emergence of broader, digitally constituted publics.

Author

• Rahul Mitra, Wayne State University