ABOUT THIS BOOK

Social media provides ethno-racial immigrant groups—especially those who cannot vote due to factors such as lack of citizenship and limited English proficiency—the ability to mobilize and connect around collective issues. Online spaces and discussion forums have encouraged many Asian Americans to participate in public policy debates and take action on social justice issues. This form of digital group activism serves as an adaptive political empowerment strategy for the fastest-growing and largest foreign-born population in America. Asian American Connective Action in the Age of Social Media illuminates how associating online can facilitate and amplify traditional forms of political action.

James Lai provides diverse case studies on contentious topics ranging from affirmative action debates to textbook controversies to emphasize the complexities, limitations, and challenges of connective action that is relevant to all racial groups. Using a detailed multi-methods approach that includes national survey data and Twitter hashtag analysis, he shows how traditional immigrants, older participants, and younger generations create online consensus and mobilize offline to foment political change. In doing so, Lai provides a nuanced glimpse into the multiple ways connective action takes shape within the Asian American community.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

James S. Lai is a Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at Santa Clara University with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science. He is the author of Asian American Political Action: Suburban Transformations and coeditor of Asian Americans Politics: Law, Participation and Policy.

REVIEWS

“In Asian American Connective Action in the Age of Social Media, James Lai convincingly shows why he is a leading scholar on Asian American and ethnic politics. Exploring the causal linkage between social media use and offline political mobilization in the immigrant-majority community, Lai breaks new ground in studying Asian American political behavior by combining case studies and elite interviews with Twitter hashtag analysis. Smartly labeling it as connective action, Lai argues that this relatively new form of political action has afforded the largely foreign-born and politically marginalized population a new tool to influence policy and politics.”—Pei-te Lien, Professor of Political Science and of Asian American Studies, Feminist Studies, and Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of The Making of Asian America through Political Participation

"Lai finds that Asian Americans have used social media to mobilize swiftly and effectively, overcoming barriers to political participation that might otherwise pose major stumbling blocks to largely immigrant populations.... Lai’s case studies examine both conservative and liberal causes, deftly expanding understanding of the political diversity of Asian Americans. Students will be fascinated to see how media familiar to them can be politically potent and how important timing is.... This work is a major contribution to the understanding of political participation, new media, and racial and ethnic studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended."—Choice

"Lai does a remarkable job of encouraging the reader to focus on understanding how connective action played a role for Asian Americans on either side of the dividing line.... [F]or those who are interested in better understanding the broadening landscape of Asian American activism—both progressive and conservative strands—and the ways that they utilize social media for activist purposes, Lai’s book is a fruitful and extensive starting point."—Mobilization

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Logging On and Getting Civically Connected

2. The Racial Paradox and Emerging Political Contours of Asian Americans: How Connective Action Challenges and Amplifies Them

3. Conceptualizing a Model for Asian American Connective Action

4. Case Study 1: The 2016 Trial of New York Police Department Officer Peter Liang and the Connective Action Mobilization by First-Generation Chinese Americans

5. Case Study 2: The Asian American Community’s Online and Offline Affirmative Action Battle over the 2012 California Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 Bill

6. Case Study 3: Data Disaggregation and the 2016 California Assembly Bill 1726—How Connective Action Helped Determine the Narrative and Outcome

7. Case Study 4: The 18 Million Rising Website and Its Role as an Online Conduit for Progressive Asian American Activism

8. Case Study 5: The 2016 California Textbook Controversy—South Asian Americans and the #DontEraseIndia Campaign

9. Case Study 6: Establishing World War II Korean Comfort Women Memorials in U.S. Cities and the Online Mobilization against Them

10. On the Virtues and Perils of Asian American Connective Action

Notes

References

Index

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