Abstract
Activists In the Data Stream: The Practices of Daily Grassroots Politics in Southern Europe is centred on the interactions of activists with digital media throughout their political activities. The book is an examination of the way activists deal and interact with the intersection of digital and non-digital media and a constant ‘data stream’. The empirical research used within the volume was conducted between 2016 and 2019 and draws on data from Greece, Italy and Spain. The findings are ‘based on expert interviews, in-depth interviews with activists, maps of the activists’ use of digital media, and a careful reading of their documents and statistical data on digital media usage’ (p. 1). The volume uses the concept of ‘data stream’ in order to answer questions and understand the occurrence of digitalization and datafiction in the lived daily experience of activists. It addresses the pressures of social media, and what happens to political activism when the buildup of social media presence evaporates. In Chapter 1, the authors address the core concepts of the book and offer a structural guidance to what will follow. The following chapters relate to the practice of information gathering and the respective challenges faced (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 then looks into the tactics of activists to increase their visibility beyond their direct following. Chapter 4 focuses on algorithmic visibility and its importance for activists. Chapter 5 explores the leading role of digital media in the organization of political work. Chapter 6 is about the importance of sustaining connections and the embedding of digital and non-digital media. Chapter 7 discusses the relationship between activist and journalist, and how to navigate contemporary journalism. Finally, the concluding chapter joins together the separate analyses and shows the intersections between them, the concluding statements suggest that information gathering anchors the practices together and offers a conceptual framework to study the relationship among grassroots politics, social movements and data streaming.