mercredi 10 novembre 2010

Abstract Emmanuelle AVRIL

Emmanuelle AVRIL (CREW, Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle) : « From Grassroots to Netroots. The evolution of decision-making in the British Labour Party ».

This paper will present an overview of the overall transformation of the Labour Party from a social democratic party into a marketing organisation, with the adoption of supposedly more efficient and rational policy-making processes. The combined effects of the party’s structural changes and the development of internet tools, which were meant to boost participation and mobilisation in a context of long-term decline of party membership, have deeply transformed the role of members in the Labour Party. Yet the move from a formal model of membership (grassroots) to the much looser model of the “Supporters Network” (netroots) in a bid to get activists back on the campaign trail, seems to have failed to deliver the kind of “vibrant” organisation which the leadership had promised to deliver. This is in part because the reforms rested on a misconception of the human dimension of both organisational change and of politics, as well as on a misunderstanding and misuse of the technical means available, in particular the potential of the new technologies to establish collaborative environments and foster lateral communication in place of the top-down, hierarchical model.

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