Digitally enabled crime-fighting communities: Harnessing the boundary spanning competence of social media for civic engagement

Digital technology is increasingly being recognized as a catalyst for national progress and social transformation. Using an in-depth case study of social media-enabled crime-fighting communities in Malaysia, this paper explores the use of social media in bringing societal change through civic engagement. We adopt the notion of boundary object to conceptualize how social media could be enacted to serve different boundary spanning purposes toward facilitating civic involvement. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing literature that aims at exploring (1) the use of technologies in advancing civic engagement and, more generally, (2) the power of technologies in addressing societal challenges.