Résumé en français : à l'occasion d'une réunion politique ou dans la rue, ils sont des centaines ou des milliers à se rassembler au même endroit pour quelques minutes d'actions concertées, avant de se disperser. Ce sont les Flash Mobs.

What connects the senior editor of Harper’s Magazine, 20,000 people singing ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas and a German crowd holding up pieces of paper and shouting ‘yeah’ -like members of American spiritualist churches- each time Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed voters during a speech in Hamburg?

It has to be flash-mobbing. The first flash mob took place in Manhattan in May 2003, organised by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper’s Magazine. Wasik wrote an article about his creation in the March 2006 edition of the magazine, in which he argued that flash mobs are a social experiment. He wanted to poke fun at conformity and laugh at how people are desperate to be part of ‘the next big thing’.

Since then, flash-mobbing has taken on many different forms (including the thousands of people across the globe who danced to Michael Jackson). Sometimes flash-mobs have political and environmental causes, but many are just to poke fun. Whatever the purpose, a flash mob is the term given to a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place. The entire group then performs an action (anything from singing or shouting to lying down) and then quickly disperses. The gatherings are organised through social media or viral emails. The participants rarely know each other beforehand.

There have been many flash-mobs organised in order to raise awareness of environmental concerns. Recently, flash-mobs were organised in 110 countries across the globe, demanding that governments take climate change seriously and take action. At the gatherings, thousands of mobile phones and alarm clocks went off and the groups phoned MPs, ministers and other influential people. More than 2,000 demonstrations – collectively known as the ‘Global Wake-Up Call’ - took place. It was set up by Internet pressure group Avaaz.org. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the 300 campaigners who had assembled outside Parliament that he would personally go to the climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

However, the reason for the recent flash-mobs in Germany is less clear. They apparently began with a picture posted on Flickr, a photo-sharing website. The picture was of a campaign poster which said ‘The Chancellor Is Coming’. After the slogan, someone had added some graffiti which said ‘And everyone says: Yeaahh’. Word soon got round. The organiser says that there will be similar demonstrations in the run up to the election. Ever the seasoned professional, Angela Merkel gave her speech and ignored the ‘yeahs’. However, at another flash-mob in Mainz, along with shouting out ‘yeah’, yellow and black signs (yellow and black are the colours of a coalition between two of Germany’s political parties) were held up. This time, Merkel spoke up, with a little joke of her own. “It can’t hurt to yell something else other than yeah after every sentence”, she said. The group took this on board and began repeating Merkel’s words, saying nonsensical things like ‘back door’, ‘growth’ and ‘five’ every time she did. The Bild newspaper asked whether the gatherings were illegal, but a police spokesman said that as long as there is no damage, there is no problem. Overall, the group didn’t seem to want to make a political statement. The German media has argued that the organisers wanted to reclaim public space for debate, and believe that internet action is a new form of political engagement. But it is not necessarily a belief shared by all. As one flash-mobber explained in her blog, ‘Why are we doing this? Because it’s funny.’