Abstract

This article aims at reassessing the debate on the organisational implications of digital technologies to political organising, with particular attention to the distinction between social movements and the institutional political arena. This inquiry follows two objectives: first it analyses the early theoretical debate on digital organising with the aim of showing how most participants to such debate depicted some possible «liberating» impacts of digital technologies on collective action. After identifying three core areas of impact through the review of early research, the article moves on to analyse how the adoption of digital organising in the institutional political arena challenges previous theorisations.