The key purpose of the research ‘A study on how public policies affect legitimacy in virtual communities’ conducted by Magda David Hercheui (2009) was to investigate the specific influence of public policies on virtual communities associated with social movements and their perceptions of their governance structures and leaders. The scholar conducted an empirical investigation with three virtual Brazilian communities of environmental education.
It is noteworthy that the Brazilian legislation does not usually allow for the creation of such informal collectives to receive funding from the government since there is no legal accountability for their resource. In the summary of the article, it is important to mention that the researcher drew upon the institutional theory as the conceptual framework; the theory suggested that institutions were understood as resilient social structures that were usually reproduced by individuals and societies or collectives to which they belonged. Moreover, institutions usually depend on the mechanisms of sanction, either formal (e.g. punishments and rewards) or informal (e.g. signals of disapproval).
Hercheui (2009) involved three communities as empirical objects of the research: Brazilian environmental education network, Sao Paulo environmental education network, and Southern Brazilian environmental education network. All three virtual communities were characterized as collectives that emerged from the computer-mediated interactions. Importantly, the membership in these virtual communities was voluntary, which meant that the members usually shared common interests and ascribed to specific rules.
The three communities studied in the research considered themselves independent social movements (Hercheui 2009), even though they had received support and resources from formal organizations such as governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and others. The researcher focused on exploring how the FNMA legislation influenced the legitimacy of virtual community leaders as well as the decision-making structures (Hercheui 2009).
If to summarize the findings of the research, it is first important to mention that the members of the virtual communities had an overall positive attitude towards the FNMA legislation since it provided strong support through monetary donations. If to provide an example, a member of the Brazilian environmental education network stated that “the government funding permitted the community to organize itself, to construct a website and to contract a professional in communication. These improvements were not coming through voluntary work” (Hercheui 2009, p. 12). As to the acceptance of the anchor organization, members of the organizations involved in the research provided contradictory answers regarding community governance structures. On the other hand, the interviewed members of the communities were clear about them not having legal existence; however, the implementation of the FNMA legislation brought some level of formality that reinforced their legitimacy.
The most significant finding of the research is associated with the post-funding stage of legislation, which can be characterized by further improvements. Respondents (Sao Paulo environmental education network and Southern Brazilian environmental education network) indicated that even though the funding had finished, their work did not stop since the anchor organization provided a basis for future operations and sustained leadership. One organization (Brazilian environmental education network) out of three reported an opposite situation; the main leader of the funded project had lost her leadership position. This occurred because the leader was attacking public policies in the area of environmental education; for this reason, the government implemented specific strategies for isolating the leader from the online community (Hercheui 2009).
The greatest advantage of the research is associated with the finding that the FNMA legislation did influence the way members of online communities to perceive the legitimacy of their leaders. Moreover, the findings of the research are important for contributing to the debate on whether online-related environments can develop their decentralized decision-making structures (Hercheui 2009). Even though such communities characterized themselves as networks, the research had shown that even before the legislation implementation, the collectives did have some type of centralized decision-making, which supports the argument that the definition of networks is too simplistic for explaining the interactions that take place within computer-mediated organizations (Hercheui 2009). Overall, the study provided a solid basis for future research on the topics of leadership and integration of legislation for supporting the process of decision-making within online-mediated communities.
If to mention the disadvantages of the research, it is important to note that the findings did not focus on the actual decisions organizational leaders and members had to make with regards to the distribution of the funding. All three organizations focused on environmental education, which is a process that allows the public to explore environmental issues, engage in the process of problem-solving, and take specific action for improving the environment (the United States Environmental Protection Agency 2017).
It could have been beneficial for the research to mention what specific decisions associated with environmental education the organizations had made to improve their operations. Moreover, it could have been beneficial for the researcher to identify whether the FNMA legislation contributed to the improvement of the environmental education in the area and whether organizations experienced increased engagement from the community members as a result of the legislation.
Reference List
Hercheui, M 2009, ‘A study on how public policies affect legitimacy in virtual communities’, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 7-21. Web.
United States Environmental Protection Agency 2017, What is environmental education? Web.