Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism - Tapa dura

'Tweets and the Streets is very timely, not just in terms of addressing the impact of Web 2.0 on social movements and activism, but also in that it addresses and soberly assesses the use of technology from recent protests in North Africa and elsewhere [...] I highly recommend this book.' (Stephen Duncombe, Associate Professor at the Gallatin School and the Department of Media, Culture and Communications of New York University and author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.)

'Offers an incisive and challenging new direction in thinking about the context and possibilities for digital media and activism. Gerbaudo embeds social media very firmly in the material politics of space, of bodies in motion and in the intensive connections that are vital in turning online affinity into wider movements. This book captures the current mood of rebellion with up to the moment case studies, built from the experiences of those who have played such a vital part in the latest waves of insurrection around the world.' (Joss Hands, author of @ is for Activism)

'Gerbaudo's insightful observations and detailed empirical research contribute greatly to our understanding of the uses of social media in such movements.' (John Sinha, International Socialism)

Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the 'indignados' protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest.

Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a 'cyberspace' detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups around 'occupied' places such as Cairo’s Tahrir Square or New York’s Zuccotti Park.

An exciting and invigorating journey through the new politics of dissent, Tweets and the Streets points both to the creative possibilities and to the risks of political evanescence which new media brings to the contemporary protest experience.