Collaborative action and new forms of participation in digital networks

• Grant number: 10/50999-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2011
• End date: October 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Massimo Di Felice
• Grantee: Massimo Di Felice
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is part of an international research that concerns a comparative study with the following main goals: analyze the forms of protagonism and citizenship that are being developed in the digital networks and define the main characteristics of the social and political meanings of those actions developed through interactions with the technology of communication. In a first moment, after having the proposed concept of "netactivism" defined, this research will start with an exploratory study developed in the Brazilian digital contexts in order to create a typology capable of indicating forms, aspects and impact of those new collaborative practices of participation that are developed in the cyberspace. In a second moment, there will be a theoretical approach about the possible meanings which can be attributed to those communicative social actions and about the role that is played in those experiences by the technological interfaces. At last, the results will be compared to those got by university research centers of three other cities (Lisbon, Milan and Paris), which are partners in this research, in order to get an international interpretation of the phenomenon. (AU)