Collective action, protest, and Covid-19 restrictions: Offline and online community participation in Italy and Australia

Public health restrictions during the Covid-19 emergency context placed limits on gathering that inevitably limited the ways that people could express dissent. The target of many protests has included the limitations placed by governments on the rights to have mass, public protests. Despite the physical limits on street protests the use of online methods to promote support for protest has increased in this context. People turned to online methods (petitions, confrontations, and discussions) and engaged in other forms of direct disruptive action to express their views about how the world should be. These observations demand a closer examination of the changing nature of collective action during the pandemic. The aim of the chapter is to study the relation between the type of collective action (offline vs. online) and the process of mobilisation for social change during the Covid-19 pandemic, comparing Italy and Australia. Two integrated models have been tested: The Social Identity Model of Collective Action, and the Encapsulation Model of the Social Identity of Collective Action. Results showed online collective action as a future way to engage, because of its “simple” and immediate way to make one’s voice heard when everyone’s rights and liberties seem to be endangered.