Collective Action 2.0

Chapter 6

Berlin Helps

Resource Mobilization and Social Media Deployment in Berlin’s Refugee Aid Movement

Abstract

In summer 2015, as the situation of refugees in Berlin tilted into a humanitarian crisis, the city’s citizens organized to help and formed a heterogenic and effective refugee aid movement. These citizen’s initiatives and individual volunteers relied, among other things, on social media platforms for their organization. In terms of the resource mobilization approach, which concentrates social movements’ ability to acquire resources and mobilize them toward accomplishing the movement’s goals, the Berlin refugee aid movement offers many examples and insight regarding the role social media deployment plays in collective action and social ...