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- Convenor:
-
Yuhan Wang
(University of Bristol)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Yuhan Wang
(University of Bristol)
- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel seeks to explore the extent to which digital platforms co-configure identities by mediating our everyday practices, the social transformations they may instigate, how we can conceptualise these dynamics, and methodological challenges we have encountered.
Long Abstract:
The process of platformisation (Van Dijck et al., 2018) represents a set of social transformations that have seamlessly woven digital platforms into the fabric of our everyday routines. What kinds of social changes might arise from these micro-level actions and creations? Our practices are not entirely under individual control, nor are they completely subservient to social structures; instead, they are part of a continuous and dynamic interplay. As users, we engage in a continuous exchange and negotiation with digital platforms. While we may consciously exert control and resistance to some extent, we occasionally and unwittingly align with the business strategies of platform companies (e.g., datafication), whether by becoming entangled in Google's lock-in system or participating in online debates. Whether consciously or unconsciously, our everyday actions contribute to the making of our identities, shaping how we perceive and present ourselves in both online and offline environments. Science and Technology Studies (STS) have enriched our understanding of critical engagement with the mundane. For example, by tracing the everyday infrastructures, we can unearth the deployment of power (Star, 1999). Although digital platforms offer researchers exciting opportunities to investigate platform societies, they also present methodological challenges, including knowledge gaps, the nature of obfuscation and ephemeral, as well as possible challenges in reaching and engaging with wider audiences.
This panel invites submissions that explore global or regional digital platforms deeply embedded in daily life, shaping identities of nation, gender, ethnicity, class, among others, including hybrid forms. Contributions may advance theoretical concepts, methodologies, or present any compelling findings.
Star, Susan Leigh. (1999) 'The Ethnography of Infrastructure', American Behavioural Scientist, 43(3): 377-391.
Van Dijck, Jose, Poell, Thomas, and de Waal, Martijn (2018) The Platform Society: Public Values in A Connected World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Víctor Ávila Torres (University of Lincoln)
Long abstract:
Platforms for music streaming and other forms of cultural consumption are the current focus of much research from within and outside academia. To enrich the discussion on the power of platformisation, significant attention has been paid to how algorithms shape practices through recommendation systems (Pray, 2018) and defining what content is presented to the listener (Eriksson & Johansson, 2017). On the other hand, an emerging set of investigation is paying attention on the user and their experiences of such platforms (Siles, 2023). This paper follows this second line of thought, it focuses in on the everyday creation of playlists in streaming platforms and how that practice mediates affects, intimacies and social life. The main argument is that forms of identity emerge in the intersection of technology, practices and contexts by a quotidian practice that produce forms of constrained agency in the individual. The paper goes further to add that it is through this process that music becomes a meaningful resource in everyday life, beyond the saturation of content available in the streaming era. The data for this paper was collected in Mexico by designing an ethnographic approach named the Music Life History method, that involved interviews and long sessions of listening music together with each participant. The paper makes contributions to the ongoing discussion about individual agency and technologies in relation to platforms and algorithmic recommendation, while also exploring the characteristics of playlists and the way they are used to engage with music in everyday life.
Barbara Sonzogni (Sapienza University of Rome) Gabriella D'Ambrosio (Sapienza University of Rome)
Long abstract:
The present research aims to investigate the theme of identity and self-representation, even more fluid, multiple and diversified, especially in the context of the so-called cyberspace, starting from the concept of the “presentation of Self in everyday life” examined by the sociologist Erving Goffman, that takes up and reworks, at a micro level, two elements of Durkheim's proposal regarding the religious dimension. Indeed, according to Goffman, the individual always lives in a specific situation that determines his social identity (this is the reason why the actions are defined as 'dramaturgical'), and this is even more true when the individual acts in a digital reality. In fact, the digital dimension could be seen as a material support to the diffusion of the “individualistic model” as the prevailing model of sociality (in this respect, some authors suggest the definition of “networked individualism”).
Cyberspace, therefore, by combining episodic interactions in real time, makes it possible to ‘wear’, depending on the people with whom one establishes relation, different lives. So, the digital dimension becomes the representation of a new environment for discussion and exchange of ideas in which it is possible to form new communities managed by individuals who, although they do not meet physically, build effective relationships where identity, founded primarily on the Kantian categories of space and time, is, inevitably, modified.
Joshua S. Bamford (University of Jyväskylä) Annika Aebli (University of Lausanne) Fabienne Silberstein-Bamford (University of Zurich)
Long abstract:
Cryptocurrency technologies have grown into a network of millions of users. A noteworthy characteristic of crypto spaces is their powerful communities of supporters, who typically gather on interactive online platforms such as Discord, using shared social codes as an expression of their strong sense of collective identity with a particular crypto community. Despite of its pseudonymous nature, crypto has become a means for developing relational ties that seem remarkably robust. What has been overlooked so far, however, are the mechanisms through which strong social bonds are formed in decentralized, pseudonymous environments with minimal in-person interaction, such as crypto. In this regard, the question of how individuals develop trust and reciprocity within and across group boundaries is central for understanding social bonding processes in these rapidly-growing ecosystems.
Using a mixed-method approach, this study examines the user-network relationships in crypto communities through the lens of identity fusion, i.e. the tendency for individuals to merge their sense-of-self with that of a social group to which they belong (Swann & Buhrmester, 2015). Preliminary results indicate an interplay of interpersonal and structural mechanisms for developing identity fusion in pseudonymous spaces. Whereas the interpersonal factors primarily include perceived group agency and perceived similarity to others in the group, the structural mechanisms refer to an ‘optimal balance’ between group size, growth, and authentic community feeling that we label the “goldilocks zone” of identity fusion in crypto communities. This study contributes to the understanding of social bonding processes in pseudonymous spaces such as crypto.
Ambar Reyes (MIT)
Long abstract:
My paper examines how indigenous Latin American migrant delivery workers in New York City exercise agency, build community and their collective identity, and resist platform control through their use of digital platforms.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, my paper investigates transnational modes of community-building and network formation and examines how these networks are instrumental for delivery workers. I map how workers communicate and engage collectively and with each other through digital platforms. There are two main digital platforms that delivery workers use to share information: one that operates inwards (WhatsApp), and another that operates outwards (Facebook).
Yet, these two forms of communication represent opposite sides of the spectrum between public and private. Delivery workers use Facebook to live-stream accidents, upload information about bike robberies, and document their actions. They use WhatsApp to coordinate, request help, and mobilize in real-time. I analyze and build a typology about how public and private communication facilitate and constrain social forms of organization. I identify two objectives to workers’ live-streaming: it helps construct their own narrative and establishes public credibility. On the other hand, WhatsApp’s groups manage logistical issues, serve as a marketplace, and act as a moral agent. These layers of communication synergize to form a transnational distributed knowledge network, shaping their individual and collective identities of migrant workers.
Overall, this article sheds light on how the flow of information through different spaces and times enables delivery workers to construct a place for subversion and negotiation with roles assigned to them by broader socio-political forces.
Niklas Strüver (University Siegen) Tim Hector (University of Siegen)
Long abstract:
During the setup of voice assistants like Alexa or Siri in a domestic context, the assistants ask several questions about their future users. Questions include how many people are in the household and which bank, Amazon, or Google account to connect. In this context, users are often faced with the task of defining their living situation and fitting it into the predetermined options. In this process, digital technologies are adapted to households, and vice-versa, as users enter into a constant negotiation with the platform logics behind smart speakers.
The inquiry about the living arrangement can be interpreted as a moment of calling into question notions about household contexts and implicit, seldom debated, or reflected-upon agreements. In these situations, users can be inspired to discuss their household compositions and to what extent they fit within the device configuration’s boundaries.
Based on recordings of the setup processes of smart speakers and an accompanying interview study, we examine how different users discuss and define their living arrangements for the assistant. For one, we seek to investigate the notions of household predefined by the voice assistants. Further, we investigate how users reflect on their living situation based on these notions and how they attempt to find infrastructural workarounds to make their arrangements fit within the devices’ logics.
These infrastructural modifications range from technical to social adaptations and (sometimes failing) plans to work the assistants into their homes. This provides insights into users’ interactions with a platform that sets various standards for their everyday life.
Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer (Technical University of Berlin) Nicolas Zehner (TU Berlin)
Long abstract:
This paper explores the process of platformisation by interrogating locative media – mobile apps that access the geolocation features of smartphones to locate their users in physical space and display web content tailored to their current location – as fundamental drivers of everyday identity-making. Building on comparative empirical research across three cities – Tokyo, Cape Town and Berlin – we shed light on how (queer) mobile dating apps such as Grindr co-configure identities of gender, place and community. To this end, we engage with the following research questions: How are locative media perceived as platforms of social change? What forms of identity-making are translated through apps such as Grindr and Tinder? How does the use of mobile dating apps differ across sociocultural contexts and along different gender identities? Comparing the use of mobile dating apps across three socio-spatial contexts, we investigate different forms of digital mediatisation of preexisting spatial realities and the cyber-physical construction of alternative spatial realities, focusing on constellations of conflict and coexistence. Doing so, this paper adds to existing accounts in STS that investigate how locative media represent space, facilitate spatial practice, thereby examining questions of power and the politics of location and locatability.
Keywords: locative media; dating apps; platformisation; digital mediatisation
Natalia Juchniewicz (University of Warsaw)
Long abstract:
The presentation will aim to indicate how classical recognition theory (Honneth, Taylor, Butler) allows framing the issue of how artificial intelligence shapes the identity of social media platform users. In recognition theory, self-consciousness, self-esteem, and dignity are shaped by interaction with other people (in Honneth's theory, this is specified by three modes of recognition: love, rights, and solidarity). In the era of algorithmization and platformization of social relations, the actor that either mediates interpersonal relationships or replaces the subject in interaction with a particular person is AI. Using the theory of the interpellative function of language (Butler), I will demonstrate that algorithms not only have performative power in shaping the identity of the subject but also that this shaping occurs on a basis similar to the internalization of habitus (Bourdieu), which is currently co-determined by the daily digital practices of social media platform users. Furthermore, in these practices, it is evident that AI can not only recognize us in terms of reinforcing identity but also perform misrecognition, which has a strong normative impact on both individuals and social groups (Taylor).
Kaori Sasaki (Sapporo Medical University)
Long abstract:
This presentation explores how women’s usage of menstruation and ovulation tracking apps (hereafter Mapps) would/could rearticulate their bodies, habits, and subjectivity in Japan where the Mapps service commenced in the 1990s, two decades before the global trend. In a typical IT platform, once we visit a website, our browsing log data is collected and used for secondary purposes such as big data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to monitor us according to the results of these statistical analyses. However, the platform for Mapps is different. Women record their own menstrual and reproductive health conditions for self-monitoring. The platform for such a service is therefore expected to provide customers with daily access to the personalised result of such analysis, including tailored advice on the best time to have sex for pregnancy. In this respect, their subjectivity and bodies could be rearticulated in conjunction with their daily habit of self-tracking and the tailored suggestions produced by Mapps. However, they also tend to produce self-knowledge through the use of Mapps; some of these users communicate with other users through the Mapps and/or SNS, producing a kind of collective self-knowledge about women's reproductive bodies. In light of this, women would not simply be influenced by the service provided by Mapps and its platform, including the advertising tailored to them. This presentation thus discusses how the provided Mapps platform and other factors could be embedded in the rearticulation process of female subjectivity vis-à-vis their use of Mapps in Japan.
Yuhan Wang (University of Bristol)
Long abstract:
This paper argues that, in the era of platformisation (van Dijck et al., 2018), digital platforms act as infrastructures that cultivate and coordinate collective identity and belonging, facilitating the imagination of a community (Anderson, 1996). When these infrastructures have a national basis and are managed within specific national contexts, they can enable the reproduction of nationhood through everyday engagement with the platforms. This paper aims to employ the STS approach to initiate an up-to-date examination of everyday nationhood as a concept that delineates individuals’ mundane daily practices can contribute to the ongoing reproduction of nationhood (Fox and Miller-Idriss, 2008).
Focusing on WeChat, the ‘everything app’ with 1.3 billion users in China, I elaborate how the platform-turned-national infrastructure fosters nationhood by orchestrating national rhythms through everyday engagement. Scholarly attention on China often highlights the state’s techno-nationalist ambitions. By tracing how the platform affords users to participate in social shopping, which integrates shopping with social networking features, I demonstrate how the platform company’s commercial agendas, such as monetising user data and increasing traffic, can become infrastructures for constructing a national collectivity, embedding the concept of nationhood into the fabric of society. This exploration endeavours to further establish that nationhood is not merely a state project, but also bottom-up engagement that is not intrinsically national. This is achieved through the co-configuration of humans and non-humans manifested in everyday doing.
Ben Zhang (University of Michigan) Dipto Das (University of Colorado Boulder) Bryan Semaan (University of Colorado Boulder)
Long abstract:
Teaching has often been characterized as a labor of love. In reality, despite their passion, teachers often find themselves underpaid and unrecognized, leading them to constantly engage in emotional labor. Emotional labor in the traditional education setting is not new; what's new is how teaching, particularly online teaching, becomes increasingly data-driven and transnational. With the burgeoning popularity of online educational industries in China, many American teachers are entering the transitional gig economy and starting to interact with students, parents, and educational standards in cross-cultural contexts. Based on 24 semi-structured interviews with U.S. teachers who worked on various Chinese gig-education platforms, this paper documents their challenges and how such platforms reconfigure their emotional labor, enabling them to reaffirm their identities as teachers and caregivers and rekindle the passion that gave their lives purpose and meaning. However, these platforms, underpinned by Chinese cultural values and data-driven technologies (e.g., datafication, algorithms, and surveillance), which we dub "transnational emotional computing," unveil emergent forms of emotional labor with which participants must contend. This work contributes to a human-centered conceptualization of identity alignment and has theoretical and design implications related to the global impact of transnational gig platforms, especially for cross-cultural digital knowledge labor.
Dustin O'Hara (Western Washington University)
Long abstract:
In this paper, I reflect on the process of closely examining downloaded Facebook profile data within a small collaborative group. Each group member downloaded their profile data, and over the course of an academic year, we explored numerous aspects of these data sets. This exploration included user-generated content, such as comments, updates, and direct messages; system logs, such as timestamped IP addresses and location data; and finally, more obscure files that reflect Facebook's interpretation of the user's "interests" and demographically-inspired classifications. We then used this data to generate a series of data visualizations and generative art.
While examining such files, one feels almost like an archaeologist surfacing hidden artifacts, both expected and unexpected, speculating on their function and meaning. In scrutinizing our individual profile data, we consistently encountered glitches or strange anomalies. The lack of documentation and general opacity is one of the defining qualities of the asymmetric relationship between the platform and its users. These files are both seemingly benign and a clear example of how human agency is documented, structured, and rendered 'legible' to power structures. However, this legibility primarily operates at the group and population levels. At the individual level, profile data can be deeply personal and ideographic. It also foregrounds the constructed nature of being a ‘user’ of a digital platform, and the limited and partial nature of digital representations.
Mohammad Zaidi Emma Germano (Columbia University) Griffin Fadellin (Columbia University) Madisson Whitman (Columbia University)
Long abstract:
Surveillance once implemented is difficult to relinquish. The new measures of tracking and surveillance introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to haunt university halls, with most current U.S. undergraduate students no longer aware of a world before the wave of change brought along by hidden digital and online forms of pervasive tracking embedded into digital educational platforms (Beetham et al. 2022). These educational ‘reforms’ represent a broader techno-solutionist paradigm buoyed by austerity measures undertaken by increasingly corporatized and managerial university organizational structures (Steck 2003). The goal of these reforms is not only to measure students but to simultaneously make them measurable (Porter 1995). The advent of contemporary technologies has significantly expanded the range and scrutiny universities can employ to measure and make measurable even more minute details of students’ everyday lives (Zurawski and Green 2015). The advancement of these tracking technologies is closely linked to their growing obfuscation from the eyes of students themselves. This presentation, which draws from interview and survey-based research, uncovers the lived experiences of students on college campuses in the U.S. as they actively grapple with this new wave of opportunistic data collection. We ask: how do students respond to being under surveillance and the lack of university transparency on the issue? How does surveillance contribute to their and the university’s co-constituted conceptions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ students? This presentation addresses critical questions about the co-configuration of student identities, highlighting the ongoing struggle to maintain autonomy and privacy in contemporary college environments.