Dear All, At the International Sociological Association (ISA) Congress of Sociology in Yokohama Japan, July 13-19 2014, I am organising a session titled ‘Social Media and Collective Identities in the new Activism’ which could be of interest for some people on this list. The session will host papers looking at activist use of social media as means of identity-building, organisation and mobilisation in recent protest movements (Arab Spring, indignados, Occupy Wall Street, protests in Brazil and Turkey). You find the abstract of the session below. The deadline is September 30th 2013. To submit an abstract for the conference, please use this link https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2014/cfp.cgi. You will find the Social Media session by clicking on ‘Research Committees’ and scrolling down in the following page to RC47 where the session is listed. Please contact me if you need further information on the session. Best, Paolo Gerbaudo Social Media and Collective Identities in the 'New Activism' This session will look at the use of social media by social movement activists with a particular focus on the new forms of identification that develop in the use of these forms of communication. It invites papers looking at the way in which Facebook pages and groups, and Twitter accounts and feeds become a platform for the construction of the collective identity of new actors, by putting forward common names, common images, common slogans, and common imaginaries. It will question what is the nature of the new forms of identity that are developed on social media, what is their degree of coherence, permanence, and how they reflect the existential challenges of a phase of economic crisis, political transition and technological innovation. Session Organizer Paolo GERBAUDO, King`s College London, United Kingdom, paolo.gerbaudo@kcl.ac.uk<mailto:paolo.gerbaudo@kcl.ac.uk> Paolo Gerbaudo Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society, King's College London paolo.gerbaudo@kcl.ac.uk<mailto:paolo.gerbaudo@kcl.ac.uk> Room 217a Norfolk Building Strand +44 020 7848 1576