Introduction
Welcome to the online course “Movement Building in the Digital Era” developed by Carol Romero and Bru Aguiló from the association Decidim and Felip Daza, member of Novact and professor at Sciences Po University Paris.
In this video Daza introduces the general objectives, relevance and structure of the course:
Learning objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify key lessons from historical and emerging nonviolent movements.
- Explore the logics of social movement building.
- Practice tools for the development of the movement culture.
- Recognize the fundamental principles of technopolitics for the strategic use of digital technologies for social organization and mobilization.
- Value the intersections between offline and online mobilization, such as collective identities.
Main readings
- Hardy Merriman, Patrick Quirk, and Ash Jain, “Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: a playbook for countering the authoritarian threat” (ICNC and Atlantic Council, 2023).
- Mike Miller, “Building Organization through Movements: A Defense of Alinsky,” Dissent Magazine, May 23, 2014.
- Monterde, Arnau, et al. “Multitudinous identities: a qualitative and network analysis of the 15M collective identity” Information, Communication & Society 18.8 (2015): 930-950.
Curriculum
- 7 Sections
- 20 Lessons
- 6 Hours
Expand all sectionsCollapse all sections
- Lesson 1. An Evolution of Social MovementsThe vast majority of social progress, such as universal suffrage, is due to the organization and action of social movements. These victories are the result of decades, and even generations, of work creating the social and political conditions for the final assault on power.4
- Lesson 2. Theoretical Approaches to Movement BuildingSocial movements are human structures capable of transforming power relations that exert oppression and injustice on certain social groups. To exercise this social influence it is necessary to build popular power to change the cultural and structural elements that maintain the status quo.4
- Lesson 3. The Pillars of Movement BuildingSocial movements live and reproduce like a living organism. Each cell is fundamental to the survival of the macroorganism, especially when the movement faces attacks from its opponents such as attempts at political co-optation, police infiltration or disinformation campaigns to discredit the movement. In this lesson, we will identify the pillars of the movement. Some of them will be analyzed in detail in other courses of the Digital Organizing program.4
- Lesson 4. Technopolitics: the strategic use of digital technologies for social organization and mobilization6
- Lesson 5. Case Study: The Democratic Tsunami "La Fuerza de la Gente"1
- Quiz1
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