Dissertation Research: Transnational Organizing, Media and Technology, and Democratic Practices in Social Movements: The Case of the Sans-Papiers in France

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Graduate student Ana Yu C. Hsu, supervised by Dr. Dolores B. Koenig, will undertake research on the sans-papiers (undocumented immigrants) social movement in France and their use of media and digital technology. Preliminary research has shown that movement supporters have more access to media and technology than do the immigrants themselves. Therefore, she hypothesizes that the increasing use of such technology may undermine democratic participation and accentuate power imbalances between the immigrants and their French and foreign supporters, who include scholars, activists, artists, and union organizers. Three central questions guide the research: 1) How does transnational activism shape the ways in which media and technology are used by the immigrants and their supporters? 2) What are the effects of this dynamic on democratic representation? 3) How do participants understand internal practices and to what extent do they interpret them as democratic and legitimate? The researcher will undertake participant observation in three French such organizations over a period of one year. She will attend meetings and collect data on media and technology use, as well as communication structures and networks within and between organizations. In addition, she will collect and analyze organizational documents, consult relevant archival materials, and conduct extensive informal and semi-structured interviews.This research project is important because it extends previous social science findings about what has been popularly termed the "digital divide" to address the detrimental effects of inequalities of access to technology and technological expertise on democratic citizenship and political participation by immigrants and other disadvantaged groups. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.