Understanding collective action through social media-based disaster data analytics

In this chapter, we explore how disasters can foster social cohesion in online communities (e.g., Occupy Sandy). We posit that data generated by these virtual communities can help detect potential collective actions that in turn can be used by disaster response agencies to foster and improve real-time response. To do so, we use text data collected from Hurricane Sandy (2012, New York City) as a case study and show that it is possible to analyze how a grassroots disaster-relief network emerged after a disaster (specifically, how social media allowed Occupy Sandy to organize throughout the disaster) and subsequently how social media played a key role in disaster relief.