2020/03/03 by Katharine Dommett, Luke Temple, Patrick Seyd · 36 citations
Social Sciences · #Computer science #Dynamics (music) #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Elite #Grassroots #Interactivity #Law #Media studies #Multimedia #Perspective (graphical) #Political science #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Power (physics) #Public relations #Scholarship #Social Media and Politics #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1093/pa/gsaa007
published in Parliamentary Affairs 74(2), 378-397 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2020/03/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
Abstract Over recent decades, scholars have explored political parties’ adoption of digital technology. Tracing successive eras of change, scholarship has examined the degree to which digital disrupts or embeds traditional power structures—with many studies finding evidence of ‘controlled-interactivity’. In this article, we revisit debates around the adoption of digital tools from a bottom-up perspective. Moving beyond attempts to categorise elite strategies for digital adoption, we consider practices on the ground to document how, in practice, digital technology is being taken up and used. Using a case study of the UK Labour Party, we categorise a range of different practices, highlighting and theorising the presence of digital adherents, laggards, entrepreneurs, renegades and refuseniks. Discussing the drivers of these practices, we offer new insight into variations in digital adoption and consider the significance of these trends for our understanding of party organisation.