Citizen activism, conservative views & mega planning in a digital era

Scholarship on citizen activism in a digital era is growing exponentially in sociology, political science, and communications/new media studies. Theorists observe changing dynamics and power shifts within a public virtual sphere. In contrast, planning scholarship is sparse on how citizens use technology outside of official channels to participate and mobilize. To explore this under-studied phenomenon, a new conceptual framework is developed by synthesizing literature across disciplines to examine digital networked activism in planning and focusing on conservative activists’ fierce opposition to regional planning in Atlanta, Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area. I find activists use new media in combination with traditional strategies to communicate, organize, market their cause and refine tactics. The new media facilitates their channeling of deeply held emotions into the production, performance and circulation of counter-narratives that destabilize the planning process as conventionally understood. Planners’ responses are largely reactive and catching up to the challenge. As a result, planners I interviewed are rethinking civic engagement in a digital era.