Internet use among social and political activists: A Kingston case study

There has been much debate between enthusiastic and sceptical scholars about the role of the internet in traditional and non-traditional political organizations. The former argue that this medium benefits smaller, resource-poor and non-traditional organizations more than powerful, resource-rich traditional political parties. The latter hold that the internet, instead of levelling the playing field between traditional and non-traditional political players, reinforces the power of the existing, dominant political elites. Both perspectives by and large assume that the effects of internet technology are self-actualizing.;The social movements on which this work concentrates are: Amnesty International (Kingston and Queen's chapters), Pesticide Reduction Kingston (PRK), the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), and Queen's Project for International Development (QPID). The following political parties are analyzed here: the Liberal Party (federal and provincial constituency-level organizations), the Progressive Conservative Party (federal and provincial constituency-level organizations), the Canadian Alliance, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Green Party (Kingston Greens).;The thesis maintains that internet technology does not have its own momentum and logic in shaping political outcomes. The study advances the argument that outcomes depend more decisively upon the use of this technology than on properties inherent in it. It argues that, to the extent to which the internet is enabling, it is conditioned by human choices, organizational context and culture. The study demonstrates that, while the centralized nature and the organizational culture of the political parties examined tend to restrict certain types of internet applications, it is the decentralized and networked culture of Kingston social movements which incites social activists to invest more effort in specific online strategies; namely, maintaining their websites, building activist networks, and generating participants' empowerment.;To address this debate, this dissertation examines how the internet deployment affects political participation of social and political activists. It focuses on political party executives from constituency-level party organizations as well as social activists from several social movements in Kingston. More specifically, this work analyzes the fashion in which internet technology contributes to activists' political engagement and their attempts to widen the influence of their organizations. In addition, the thesis looks at the extent to which the net prompted activists' political initiation.