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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

A Transparent Network – Soldiers’ Digital Resistance and Economic Unrest

Author : Shira Rivnai Bahir

Published in: Social Media and the Armed Forces

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The current study offers several insights into the relationship between the features of digital activism and the ability of groups with limited protesting powers, such as soldiers in mandatory military service in Israel, to protest and promote social change. Moreover, it points to a unique configuration of collective identity, which is rooted not in organised collective action, but in a rhizomatic process taking place beneath the surface. The fragmented voices of these soldiers come together in the cybernetic sphere as a quasi-transparent net to form a canonical collective voice. This unique configuration seems to bridge the two existing concepts of digital activism, one of which tends to underestimate the importance of the collective, while the other believes that, despite the action of individuals, the group remains the dominant structure.

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previous chapter Sentiment of Armed Forces Social Media Accounts in the United Kingdom: An Initial Analysis of Twitter Content

next chapter The Dark Side of Interconnectivity: Social Media as a Cyber–Weapon?

See Varian and Repcheck 2010.

The Republican contract refers to an approach to citizenship, which considers the military service as defining citizenship and its boundaries and sees the IDF as a state apparatus for social inclusion and exclusion (Helman 1999; Shafir and Peled 2002; Sasson-Levy 2006; Levy et al. 2007).

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For example: The revenge on soldiers who got stuck in the fiery heat with no air conditioning: removal and confinement for a month. Yoav Zeitun, August 12, 2015, Ynet. The soldiers who protested on Facebook were ousted from the IDF. Rafi Jarby, 15.05.2015, Maariv.

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An arena in which several posts and notifications are made daily.

More than 50 participants write in addition to the forum or page administrators.

Information was monitored in Buzilla, using a query that included reference to the search terms as well as the monitored sources, websites, dates, etc.

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All data was translated into English.

The term yeshiva students refers to young ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel who study in Jewish religious educational institutions (yeshiva).

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Title: A Transparent Network – Soldiers’ Digital Resistance and Economic Unrest
Author: Shira Rivnai Bahir
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Social Media and the Armed Forces
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47510-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-47511-6

Copyright Year: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47511-6_10

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