In the context of the active digitalization of government-public communication, the processes of consolidation and mobilization of online communities are particularly important, reflecting society's capacity for self-organization in crisis situations. The relevance of this study stems from the need to understand how women's and youth online communities adapt to new social conditions and build forms of collective action, including in the current context of a special military operation. The problem with this study is that regional women's and youth online communities are actively involved in social consolidation and mobilization processes, yet the relationship between these processes and their manifestations in the current socio-political situation remains insufficiently studied. This article utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods of analyzing the online activity of regional women's and youth communities in Siberia. The study included 251 women's and 301 youth communities on the VKontakte social network across the following regions: the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Tyumen Region, the Kemerovo Region-Kuzbass, the Irkutsk Region, the Tomsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republic of Khakassia, the Republic of Tyva, the Novosibirsk Region, the Altai Territory, and the Altai Republic. The results show that the dynamics of community formation vary across regions. During the start of the special military operation (2022-2023), women's communities focusing on the special military operation were actively formed. They often formed self-organized and gradually institutionalized, developing into sustainable mutual aid structures. Youth communities more often demonstrated administrative consolidation, implemented through established forms of participation and government initiatives. The study's findings emphasize that consolidation is a prerequisite for the mobilization readiness of regional online communities. Communities can be activated not only to implement current initiatives, such as humanitarian aid, but also to subsequently address other socially significant issues for the region.
In the context of the active digitalization of government-public communication, the processes of consolidation and mobilization of online communities are particularly important, reflecting society's capacity for self-organization in crisis situations. The relevance of this study stems from the need to understand how women's and youth online communities adapt to new social conditions and build forms of collective action, including in the current context of a special military operation. The problem with this study is that regional women's and youth online communities are actively involved in social consolidation and mobilization processes, yet the relationship between these processes and their manifestations in the current socio-political situation remains insufficiently studied. This article utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods of analyzing the online activity of regional women's and youth communities in Siberia. The study included 251 women's and 301 youth communities on the VKontakte social network across the following regions: the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Tyumen Region, the Kemerovo Region-Kuzbass, the Irkutsk Region, the Tomsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republic of Khakassia, the Republic of Tyva, the Novosibirsk Region, the Altai Territory, and the Altai Republic. The results show that the dynamics of community formation vary across regions. During the start of the special military operation (2022-2023), women's communities focusing on the special military operation were actively formed. They often formed self-organized and gradually institutionalized, developing into sustainable mutual aid structures. Youth communities more often demonstrated administrative consolidation, implemented through established forms of participation and government initiatives. The study's findings emphasize that consolidation is a prerequisite for the mobilization readiness of regional online communities. Communities can be activated not only to implement current initiatives, such as humanitarian aid, but also to subsequently address other socially significant issues for the region.
The research was carried out using a grant from the Russian Science Foundation for the project “Social and political mobilisation of women's and youth communities in the Siberian macroregion in the context of the special military operation”. № 25-28-01459, https://rscf.ru/project/25-28-01459 /.