What Happens if you Think Nothing Happens - A Mixed-Method Network Analysis of Group Structure in a Social Movement

What happens to an activist collective when the campaign they engage in stalls? This study collects and integrates qualitative and quantitative data about the collective's social network structure over time. I focus particularly on the network dynamics following a disruptive external event that led to changes in campaign priorities. To interpret these dynamics, I draw on network science and the new social movement literature with a focus on resilience. The results show a decisive role of affinity groups in the network's aggregation and disaggregation processes. While the network decreases in size after the event, the number of connections between affinity groups does not. Furthermore, affinity group membership and the number of affinitive ties in the network are strong positive predictors of an individual remaining in the network over time. Of note, I find little overlap between affinity groups and communities detected using a community detection algorithm, highlighting the need for a mixed-method network analysis. This work contributes to a growing body of research on collective adaptation and the systematic analysis of social movements with an integrated approach.