Communicating in a Transnational Network of Social Activists: The Crucial Importance of Mailing List Usage

Social movements need to coordinate their political activities. They are often characterized by a fragile organization structure and sparse personnel, financial, and technical resources. In this paper we describe how a transnational networks of social activists, the European Social Forum (ESF), uses a central mailing list as a major communication tool. By means of a long-term field study, we analyzed the work practices of this network and observed the usage of the mailing list. The empirical findings highlight how the mailing list is used for a variety of different activities such as collaborative work, decision making, coordination, and information sharing. We discuss the finding with regard to the discourse on cooperative work and come up with implications for design.