1. How online initiatives revive offline civic engagement
Domagoj Bebić,
Marijana Grbeša, MSc
Faculty of Political Science
University of Zagreb
Going offline
How online initiatives revive offline civic engagement

2. Identity Two perspectives
I (individual identity) – psychological constructs/influences of social interaction
We (collective identity)

3. Collective identity
Shared definition produced by several interaction individuals who are concerned with the orientations of their actions as well as the field of opportunities and constraints in which their actions take place (Mellucci, 1989)

4. Collective identity
Members of the Internet community continually work to reincorporate their experience of themselves and of others‘ selves into integrated, consistent wholes
Presumption of an offline identity which continues to live offline is a precondition for discussion that person pursue his/her interests and causes which continue to exist both in virtual and physical world

5. Erosion of Social Capital (Putnam)
Dissolution of community
Decline in membership of social groups and voluntary associations, and in many forms of collective political participation such as attending town hall meetings or working for political parties (Putnam 1995)

6. Erosion of Social Capital (causes)
Structure of US economy
Changes in the family
Growth of the welfare state
Emergence of television (alienation of people)

7. Crisis of Public Communication political disengagement
Common practices in political communications as deployed by the news media and by party campaigns hinder civic engagement, meaning learning about public affairs, trust in government and political activism (Blumler and Gurevitch 1995, Rosen 1996)

8. Both concepts
If we agree that it is the engagement of citizens that provides the building blocks of successful democracy then concern them stems from both concepts is hardly surprising

9. New communication technologies
Appear to have opened up new spaces for public and private participation as well as broadened public participation in political matters

10. Virtual Communities
Individuals engage in online communication thus creating virtual communities
“the social aggregations that emerges from the Internet when enough people carry on public discussions long enough and with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships”(Rheingold)

11. Citizens reconnect
Interactivity as a key element to change the nature of citizens’ participation in politics and public life in general
Internet with a potential to restore public sphere providing forum in which citizens debate issues of public concern (Coleman; Street)
Cyberspace as generating a new world order based on international communication and popular empowerment (Negroponte, 1996)

12. Basic conclusion
Reinvent community in cyberspace and political participation will follow (Chadwick, 2006)

13. Enabling View
Internet
Group identity
Real world
Group identity
Real world
Group action
as medication for the perceived ills of modern society: isolation, fragmentation, competitive individualism, the erosion of local identities, the decline of traditional religious and family structures and the downplaying of emotional forms of attachment and communication

14. Enabling View: Two-folded solution
Internet is seen to have potential to engage people into public discussion about matters of common concern thus bringing politics back to the people and restoring public sphere – Habermasian sense of reengagement

15. Enabling View: Two-folded solution
Internet is believed to have capacity to restore broken social ties – Putnam’s sense of reengagement

16. Disabling View (concerns)
The only functional community is the one based on a face-to-face communication (Putnam)
Poor quality of interaction between individuals, tendency to produce plurality of deeply segmented political associations

17. Examples
Move On (Habermas)
Meet Up (Putnam)

18. Move On

19. Move On

20. Meet Up

21. Meet Up

22. Examples Both initiatives have clearly demonstrated capacity:
provide a platform to elaborate the cause people can identify
build group cohesion strong enough to encourage
real action

23. Conclusion (Assumptions developed)
I. Online interactions in virtual communities have the potential to create group identity hence providing a source of content that has the capacity to transform virtual into physical communities.

24. Conclusion (Assumptions developed)
II. These virtually created and physical consumed communities have the capacity to induce public action and positively contribute to civic engagement

25. Conclusion
Presented initiatives have managed to deploy alternative communication channels to positively contribute to public engagement in both Habermasian sense and Putnam’s sense and that is a value per se

26. Avenue of future research
To closely examine the nature and the dynamics of these virtually created and physically consumed communities
Compare them to traditional “real life” groups and communities