Dennis speaking at the Political Studies Association Annual Conference

On 15 April 2019, UoP journalism lecturer James Dennis will present a paper at the Political Studies Association Annual Conference in Nottingham, entitled A Party Within a Party Posing as a Movement? Social Media and Organisational Hybridity in Momentum. Details of the paper are provided below.

When: 14:45–16:15

Where: Lecture Theatre 1, Newton / Arkwright Building

For those not in attendance, you can follow all the updates from the PSA Media and Politics Group panels on Twitter here.

Abstract

Despite early forecasts of a landslide victory for the Conservative Party in the 2017 UK general election, the Labour Party surprised many by gaining 30 seats and increasing its share of the vote by almost 10 per cent. In explaining Labour’s relative success, some political commentators have highlighted the role of Momentum, the political activist group founded in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to leader of the Labour Party. With 40,000 members, 200,000 supporters, and over 170 local groups across the UK, Momentum has become an insurgent force in British politics.

Set in the context of its impact during the 2017 UK general election and the debates surrounding its organisational form, this article examines how Momentum uses Facebook and Twitter within its campaigning. By exploring this social media-enabled activism at the national and local level, I seek to understand the extent to which Momentum offers member-driven campaigning. Drawing on a mixed-method research design, combining data collected through interviews with local organisers in Bristol and Portsmouth with a descriptive discourse analysis of content posted on public-facing Facebook and Twitter pages, I observe the organisational dynamics of Momentum. I test whether it provides meaningful forms of influence for members, or whether it acts more like a political party, restricting the agency of grassroots activists by directing citizen participation to those tasks that the leadership needs completing.

I argue that Momentum embraces what Chadwick and Stromer-Galley (2016) describe as the “party-as-movement” mentality. Given the group’s overarching electoral goal — to deliver a Labour government that represents the socialist traditions embodied by Jeremy Corbyn — it is clear that, at the national level, Momentum does not share the unique characteristics that we associate with horizontal forms of digital organising. I found little evidence of the organisation using the digital feedback loops available on Facebook and Twitter to integrate member feedback within the group’s decision-making. However, local organisers draw on social platforms to assist with semi-autonomous forms of community organising. This ability to move between leader-directed campaigning and member-driven activism at different spatial levels poses new questions for the literature on digital organising.

Book launch

James will also be celebrating the launch of his first monograph, Beyond Slacktivism, at the PSA Media and Politics Group reception on Monday 15th April (Nottingham). Tickets are available here.