The Communicative Constitution of Collective Action

• In Event: Constituting Organizations: Scholarship on CCO

Abstract

Current discourse around digital media and protest movements considers the media as integral to the processes through which people constitute themselves as collectives. However, theoretical frameworks that help us to understand this relationship are still under development. This paper is aimed as a contribution to this strand of theorising. It considers communication as constitutive of collective action and outlines six propositions that help us think of collective action as a phenomenon emerging in communication. To achieve this, I draw from the CCO strand of organizational communication and particularly from the work of Taylor and van Every, and their conceptualization of text and conversation. The paper demonstrates the explanatory value of this approach by illustrating the theoretical analysis with examples emerging from my ongoing research on the role of digital media in the Occupy movement in the USA and the UK.

Author

• Anastasia Kavada, U of Westminster - Communication and Media Research Institute