A special report on technology and politics in The Economist examines questions of democracy, data, politics, and social media referencing the findings reported in Political Turbulence: A new book entitled "Political Turbulence" come[s] to an intriguing conclusion: social media are making democracies more "pluralistic", but not in the conventional sense of the word, involving diverse but stable groups. Instead, the authors see the emergence of a "chaotic pluralism", in which mobilisations spring from the bottom up, often reacting to events. Online mobilisation can develop explosively and seemingly at random. ... Politics in the age of social media, the authors conclude, [...]

John Naughton referenced Political Turbulence in his column in The Guardian entitled, "#Twitter crisis? Not if it decides that it can be a smaller, smarter platform." The Guardian Bookshop is also selling Political Turbulence for £17 with free UK shipping! In a thought-provoking new book, Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action, Professor Helen Margetts and her colleagues at the Oxford Internet Institute provide empirical evidence that social media are starting to change our politics in ways not yet appreciated or understood. Platforms such as Twitter, they write, are providing "zero-touch co-ordination for micro-donations of time, effort, and money [...]

Helen Margetts spoke with Deutsche Welle last week about the book and a range of topics from the role of social media in mobilizations to the (lack of) sustainability of social media campaigns. An article reporting their conversation is available at http://dw.com/p/1HpSV. Political Turbulence: we're 'dripping with data' and it may make democracy better Do social media shape collective action? Professor Helen Margetts, co-author of a new book called "Political Turbulence" says they do. By allowing us to make "micro-donations" it's easy to join a cause. ...Read more.

Ivor Gaber reviewed Political Turbulence on 21 January in Times Higher Education (THE). "Chaotic pluralism...a new kind of pluralism, highly decentred and chaotic" is what we're living through, if we are to believe the authors of Political Turbulence. The authors, whose disciplinary backgrounds range across political science, computational science and physics, argue that this new status quo has resulted from the intrusion, if that's the right word, of social media into the political sphere, an intrusion that they describe as "unstable, unpredictable and often unsustainable". ...Read more