Abstract

This is an ethnographic study conducted upon third-party sociopolitical movements in American society. The research included participant observation in a Midwestern State Green Party, in addition to the Populist Party of America: a micro-party based in Los Angeles. I examine the prospects for third-party sociopolitical movements fostered by a human ecological transformation: The diffusion of Internet communications within American society.

I contend that this new form of representational space – “Internet virtual-ism” – offers a potential for third-party organization that is unprecedented. This is due to the decentralized nature of Internet communications. This communicative design prevents the presence of central gate-keepers who serve as regulatory mechanisms for a dialogue process in which access to the modes of communication and the representation that they afford is a privilege enjoyed by elites. Additionally, this form of decentralized mass communications can be utilized by third-parties for the purpose of facilitating a Social Movement Organization that is more adaptive and resilient, allowing for the development of social action knowledge that can be implemented in order to actualize the third-party movement’s agenda.

My participation in third-party sociopolitical movements came to assume a capacity where I contributed to Internet media campaigns that sought to exploit the insights of the new paradigm in Web-based programming, Web 2.0. I argue that Web 2.0 and the design patterns, according to which Web 2.0 instances are devised, are extensible to the domain of practical knowledge development – belonging to Public Sociology, (Kalleberg, 2005) – and actionable for mounting effective third-party sociopolitical movements.