After Community: Upscaling and the Flux of Online Civic Engagement in Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on the experience of three Indonesian online communities, this paper argues that civic engagement organized by online communities is not simply an outcome of compassion or social solidarity but also a mitigating circumstance of community building. The durability of organizing civic engagement, therefore, relies on the transformation of online communities and members’ capacity for community management—that is, how the community could upscale its form and activities. Failing in upscaling the community can lead to community abandonment. Community upscaling relies on the success of institutionalizing civic engagement activities, community adaptation to new chat platforms, conserving interpersonal communication within the same online location, and generating new community trajectories.