This paper proposes an analytic framework to study the nexus between social media and collective action phenomena adopting a multidimensional network perspective. This nexus is framed here in a broader context within which social processes of mobilization are, on the one hand, sustained and enriched by different types of analogical and/or digital technologies allowing the construction of online and offline relationships amongst participants; and, on the other, push technological evolution as a response to social and collective needs. In order to render the interplay between the social and the technological components of collective action phenomena, the paper proposes to adopt the concept of collective action socio-technical system (CASTS). Within CASTS, collective action is structured along multidimensional networks formed by participants, the technologies they employ (whether they are analogical or digital) and by the links within and across these two groups. In this sense, social media use in collective action phenomena becomes one of the possible technological strategies adopted by activists and online activism through social media use becomes a complement to (not a substitution for) both offline activism and online activism pursued through other means, such as websites. Thus the adoption of different social media platforms fosters the creation of different multidimensional networks of people and user-generated contents that can serve different purposes, depending on the material agency exerted by the tool itself (e.g., microblog for information flows and social networking sites for the construction of communities).
On this background, the paper maps the current Italian mobilization on gender issues “Se non ora, quando?” (SNOQ) as a CASTS, outlining the interplay between its online/offline dimension and investigating the actual role of different social media platforms in the very deployment of the mobilization effort.
