Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong

Yong Ming Kow; Bonnie Nardi; Wai Kuen Cheng

doi:10.1145/3313831.3376634

Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong

Yong Ming Kow, Bonnie Nardi, Wai Kuen Cheng

School of Creative Media

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine a leaderless social movement characterized by participants’ autonomy and the absence of leaders and organizations. We conducted a participant observation study of the Anti-ELAB movement in Hong Kong. Focusing on the organization of a protest march, we collected thousands of lines of discourse in the LIHKG Forum and the Telegram instant messaging system. Our grounded theory analysis revealed hundreds of groups acting within a symbiotic network. Participants promoted an ethos of empowering individual participants and groups to act autonomously. At the same time, participants’ extensive use of hyperlinks and polls orchestrated a coherent social movement. We discuss how this novel formation can mediate successful leaderless movements.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI'20
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4503-6708-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376634
Publication status	Published - 25 Apr 2020
Event	2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020) - Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, United States Duration: 25 Apr 2020 → 30 Apr 2020 https://chi2020.acm.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3313831

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020)
Abbreviated title	CHI '20
Country/Territory	United States
City	Honolulu
Period	25/04/20 → 30/04/20
Internet address	https://chi2020.acm.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3313831

Research Keywords

anti-elab
ethnography
hong kong
leaderless social movement

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10.1145/3313831.3376634

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title = "Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong",

abstract = "We examine a leaderless social movement characterized by participants{\textquoteright} autonomy and the absence of leaders and organizations. We conducted a participant observation study of the Anti-ELAB movement in Hong Kong. Focusing on the organization of a protest march, we collected thousands of lines of discourse in the LIHKG Forum and the Telegram instant messaging system. Our grounded theory analysis revealed hundreds of groups acting within a symbiotic network. Participants promoted an ethos of empowering individual participants and groups to act autonomously. At the same time, participants{\textquoteright} extensive use of hyperlinks and polls orchestrated a coherent social movement. We discuss how this novel formation can mediate successful leaderless movements.",

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booktitle = "CHI'20",

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note = "2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), CHI '20 ; Conference date: 25-04-2020 Through 30-04-2020",

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Kow, YM, Nardi, B & Cheng, WK 2020, Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong. in CHI'20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 3376634, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, 25/04/20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376634

Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong. / Kow, Yong Ming; Nardi, Bonnie; Cheng, Wai Kuen.
CHI'20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2020. 3376634 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

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M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

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Be Water: Technologies in the Leaderless Anti-ELAB Movement in Hong Kong

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