Digital solidarity, analogue mobilization: An ethnography of the technology-embedded protest networks of the Québec student strike

Abstract

Background This article presents the results of an ethnographic study of the online and offline communities participating in the "Maple Spring" student strike in Québec as a case study for theorizing the trajectory of the technology-embedded social movement. Analysis Analyzing data collected during field visits that include over 50 interviews with participants, community organizers, union representatives, community-media producers, and activists, this article argues that it is the practices of online-offline sharing, belonging, strategizing, and affectively being together that allowed for a hybridized practice of social movements to translate into concrete direct democratic action. Conclusions and implications The social and mobile media uses of the Québec studentstrike participants suggest that the strategy of using mediated exchanges in order to both build community belonging and share information/knowledge can be effective in mobilizing boots-on-the-ground actions as a means of democratic participation and social change for today's hybridized social movements and direct actions.