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Vertical crowdsourcing in Russia: balancing governance of crowds and state-citizen partnership in emergency situations

Asmolov, Gregory (2015) Vertical crowdsourcing in Russia: balancing governance of crowds and state-citizen partnership in emergency situations. Policy and Internet, 7 (3). pp. 292-318. ISSN 1944-2866

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Identification Number: 10.1002/poi3.96

Abstract

Crowdsourcing can be analyzed not only as a mechanism for empowerment, but also as operating a form of control over volunteers. This article applies Foucault's notion of governmentality to examine relations between traditional governmental institutions and users of crowdsourcing platforms in Russia. Through a comparative analysis of two emergency volunteering portals, Dobrovoletz, and Rynda.org, we describe “vertical crowdsourcing” as a strategy by traditional (government affiliated) actors to use crowdsourcing platforms to govern and control volunteers. This is in contrast to horizontally organized, or ground-up understandings of crowd-volunteering platforms. Two alternative discourses around the role of crowd members are further discussed: volunteers as actors who can contribute resources to the achievement of a common goal, and the crowd as a threat to central government that needs to be controlled.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(IS...
Additional Information: © 2015 Policy Studies Organization
Divisions: Media and Communications
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Date Deposited: 20 Sep 2016 16:22
Last Modified: 16 Mar 2024 22:36
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/67811

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