A Research Design for the Analysis of Contemporary Social Movements

In the ordinary debate about the political culture decline, social networks have recently changed the social scenario, showing its relevance in down-up social movements. Therefore, social networks are taken here as a potential place for the existence of active citizens ones that are able and keen about political action in a common world or community. Such recent political revitalization demonstrates the relevance of understanding net activism as a precondition for an active citizenship in the digital culture, where new forms of communication and social interaction seem to influence the democratic relationships in ICT mediated public spheres. The main objective of this article is to present a research design for the identification of elements that promote social empowerment in digital culture. It proposes research procedures for the study of political net activist groups in social networks. Methods, instruments and resources were created and articulated for the collection and treatment of big data and for further qualitative analysis of content, by successive steps of data mining. In addition to contributing to the internet studies field, by proposing a qualitative investigation of social networks, this research design also brings innovation to the Education field as the results of the application of this research design (the identification of important elements for citizens' empowerment) will be used to ground the development of guidelines to teachers and to teachers' education on critical appropriation of social networks in active citizens' education.