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Becoming E-Petition: An Assemblage-Based Framework for Analysis and Research

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  • Helen Briassoulis

Abstract

Ε-petitions, the digital version of printed petitions, are increasingly being used as complimentary means of nonconfrontational, online citizen mobilization/protest. They attract considerable research interest because they provide (big) data to study e-petitioning and the political and other aspects of socio-spatial issues. E-petition studies lack discussion of ontology, of “what is an e-petition,†implicitly treating e-petitions as “systems-as-a-whole†or, seldom, as relational formations. Acknowledging the foundational role of ontology, Assemblage Thinking (AT) is argued to beget a more judicious approach when e-petitions are employed as research instruments to study the “who-what-when-where-and-how†of a socio-spatial issue and, concurrently, their situated contribution to issue-related decision-making. After presenting the reductionist/essentialist and the nonreductionist/relational approaches to the study of e-petitions and introducing ΑΤ, an assemblage-based framework is proposed that conceptualizes e-petitions as multiplicities comprising assemblages, dynamic compositions emerging from processes of heterogeneous components coming together to serve a purpose. A concomitant methodology is outlined and an illustrative example is offered. The advantages of assemblage-based over reductionist/essentialist approaches for the situated co-analysis of socio-spatial issues and e-petitions are discussed, indicating how they address prominent concerns of the literature, and future research directions are suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Helen Briassoulis, 2021. "Becoming E-Petition: An Assemblage-Based Framework for Analysis and Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:21582440211001354
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211001354
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carpenter, Daniel & Moore, Colin D., 2014. "When Canvassers Became Activists: Antislavery Petitioning and the Political Mobilization of American Women," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 479-498, August.
    2. Lucas Böttcher & Olivia Woolley-Meza & Dirk Brockmann, 2017. "Temporal dynamics of online petitions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-12, May.
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    4. Helen Briassoulis, 2019. "Governance as multiplicity: the Assemblage Thinking perspective," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(3), pages 419-450, September.
    5. Jodi L. McNeill & Thomas F. Thornton, 2017. "Pipelines, Petitions, and Protests in the Internet Age: Exploring the Human Geographies of Online Petitions Challenging Proposed Transcontinental Alberta Oil Sands Pipelines," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(6), pages 1279-1298, November.
    6. Helen Z. Margetts & Peter John & Scott A. Hale & Stéphane Reissfelder, 2015. "Leadership without Leaders? Starters and Followers in Online Collective Action," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 63(2), pages 278-299, June.
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