Can Connected People Change the World? A systemic approach based on the Network Theory for the modeling of collective actions

Abstract

The present article intends to explore the relationship between the effects of the Internet and the structure of social relations, seen as a network of connections between people, in the possible civic and political participation and participation of the individuals of this group; establishing the vision of a public sphere resized by a new configuration of the social actors involved in its constitution. In order to do so, it briefly reviews the studies related to this line of research, proposing a systemic approach based on Network Theory and a model of multidisciplinary analysis exemplified through the diffusion modalities: contagion, social threshold and social learning.