We are thrilled to announce the launch of Mobilizing Ideas, a hub for stimulating conversation between activists and scholars about important issues in social movements and social change. The central content will be a monthly exchange on a salient topic. These Essay Dialogues will be complimented by the Daily Disruption – a filter blog of interesting news, perspectives, and more.
Our inaugural dialogue features the reactions of scholars and activists to Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport’s recent book, Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age (MIT Press, 2011). This topic is one of great interest to those of us who grapple with understanding the ever-changing world of movement dynamics, as social movement leaders are finding increasingly creative uses for social media. As you will read in in the posts that follow, agreement on the tactical advantage of digital media is not unanimous.
We would like to thank our distinguished contributors for participating in this inaugural essay dialogue:
Frida Berrigan, Witness Against Torture
Joss Hands, Anglia Ruskin University
Kevin Matthews, PetitionOnline
Paul-Brian McInerney, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
Francesca Polletta, Univ. of California in Irvine
Deana Rohlinger, Florida State Univ.
We hope you will add Mobilizing Ideas to your bookmarks and feeds, and that you will help us spread the word about this important source of social movement information and debate.
Enjoy the site!
Grace Yukich, David Ortiz, Rory McVeigh, and Daniel Myers
Editors in Chief
Mobilizing Ideas 