Paper short abstract

this paper examines the Everyday life, Digital Media, and Social Boundaries in Polarised Groups in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Paper long abstract

Polarisation of multi-ethnic and religious groups in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria is a phenomenon that lives and felt through the ordinary routines, encounters, and struggles that shapes everyday life of the people. Studies on Kaduna State have focused on the eruption of cycles of violence, political contestation, and ethno-religious conflict, with less attention on the subtle, routine practices through which various groups live, negotiate, or subvert these boundaries. This attention on macro-level explanations, creates gap in understanding how polarisation is reproduced, interpreted, and contested in daily encounters through the employment of digital infrastructures. Recent transformations in mobile communications, social media, digital surveillance systems, have introduced new layers of visibility, vulnerability, and negotiation in polarisation. Digital tools such GPS, mobile technologies, proliferation of digital images, voice notes, and algorithmically amplified content has contributed to new form of public discourse in which identities are framed. This study creates a nuance that identify the challenges and address gaps by homogenizing narratives of northern and southern Kaduna societies as inherently conflict prone. It explores how digital infrastructures simultaneously transform social connection, share information and coordinate livelihood, interrogating dual roles of digital infrastructures as mediators of peace and catalyst of tension in the region. Ethnographic approach is employed and spatial mapping across selected communities to understanding of lived realities of digital communication systems and the transformation of social boundaries.