#MilkTeaAlliance, more than spectators of disaster. The new alter-globalization movement?

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has been instrumentalized as a catalyst for further autocratization, especially in South and Southeast Asia. The #MilkTeaAlliance, a Pan-Asian solidarity networked social movement, could be the movement that challenges effectively and productively this growing trend. The objective of this research is to evaluate if the hastagh #MilkTeaAlliance has the potential to become the next alter-globalization movement. To that end, this dissertation adopts a dual approach. First, a theoretical parallel is drawn between #MilkTeaAlliance and alter-globalization through Castells’ conceptualization of networked social movements. Second, over two-hundred tweets in English have been collected from March 2020 to March 2022. These tweets are categorized by the co-occurrence of words and the visual content to investigate if Twitter is a space of denunciation and/or a space of prefiguration. The thesis concludes that #MilkTeaAlliance has the potential to become a catalyst for a larger movement, but it is not yet the next alter-globalization. Although it has many similarities to the alter-globalization movement, this conclusion is based on three observations: (a) Twitter is a space of denunciation rather than a space of prefiguration, (b) Southeast Asian users are more engaged than those from outside the region, and (c) the movement has a weak shared framework.