Despite the interest in the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) by trade unions, little is known about how new ICTs have changed trade union protest. In a period of austerity, in which new groups – including labour-related ones – have shown impressive mobilization using social media, we focus on a cross-country approach, looking at the impact of trade union strikes and protest in the public sector. Our findings show that new ICTs are being used at all stages of strike action and union protests in general, but do not allow us to assert that unions have changed the way they act in a fundamental way.

Information and communication technologies can provide an important contribution to revitalizing trade unions, since the internet is faster, cheaper and more far-reaching than traditional communication methods. We propose a typology for analysing trade union websites, and apply this by comparing two national cases. The empirical research is limited to the websites of Portuguese and British civil service trade unions. We find that British unions take more advantage of the internet than those in Portugal; not only do they enable interactivity but above all promote the website as a space for sociability. We believe this typology opens up enhanced capacity to monitor, diachronically and synchronically, the relationship between trade unions and the internet.

This article aims to discuss the contemporary activities and roles that scientific associations play in science and society. It is based on a comprehensive study of scientific associations in Portugal, relying on a multi-method, quantitative and qualitative approach. After a brief review of the (scarce) literature on associations in the social studies of science, we provide an outline of the expanding field of scientific associations in Portugal. We then proceed to present and discuss the five main roles of associations identified through the research: communication among peers, promotion of research, science dissemination, representation of professional interests and policy advice. We conclude that the external roles of associations (establishing connections between science and society) have become more important than the internal ones. Whereas the internationalisation of science has moved the communication, collaboration and competition between researchers into the transnational sphere, the links that associations forge between science and other social spheres are still deeply rooted in national settings and much dependant on specific configurations and practices by government, business and other social actors.