Organizing technologies: Genre forms of online civic association in Eastern Europe

Balázs Vedres, László Bruszt, David Stark

Research output: Contribution to journalReview Articlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

How do civic associations in Eastern Europe organize themselves online? Based on data collected on 1,585 East European civil society Web sites, the authors identify five emergent genres of organizing technologies: newsletters, interactive platforms, multilingual solicitations, directories, and brochures. These clusters do not correspond to stages of development. Moreover, newer Web sites are more likely to be typical of their genre, suggesting that forms are becoming more distinctive. In contrast to the utopian image of a de-territorialized, participatory global civil society, the authors' examination of the structure of hyperlinks finds that transnational types of Web sites are not inclined to be participatory. Whereas other paradigms focus on inequality of users' online access, the authors probe inequality in the accessibility of Web sites to potential users through search engine technology and show how this varies across different types of civil society Web sites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)171-188
Number of pages18
JournalAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Volume597
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2005

Keywords

  • Civil society
  • Eastern Europe
  • Internet
  • Participation
  • Technology
  • Web site analysis

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Organizing technologies: Genre forms of online civic association in Eastern Europe'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this