Short Abstract:

During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, digital contexts were emplacements where new forms of being appeared, were decontextualized and then recontextualized. Accordingly, ethnographic research started to focus on the ways in which identity and alterity were created and recreated in such contexts.

Long Abstract:

Becoming a part of virtual reality offers the opportunity of reconsidering one’s own identity (Habermas, 2011) and, furthermore, of exploring the various identities of other individuals (Maan, 1997) who are more or less familiar to us in the real world. In order to better engage in an ethnographic approach aimed at virtual communities, a researcher must first get rid of the customs of real world and start a reflection on the social impact of the digital technologies on the identity of oneself and others. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, digital contexts (e.g. in-game virtual worlds) were emplacements where new forms of being appeared, were decontextualized and then recontextualized. Accordingly, ethnographic research started to focus on the ways in which identity and alterity were created and recreated in such contexts. In our panel we encourage papers dedicated to the study of the ways in which anthropologists had to probe beyond their frame of reference in order to reveal: (a) experiential storytelling in the various games’ virtual worlds (Murray, 2017); (b) expressive and reflexive users’ engagement in social media (Michael and Chen, 2005); (c) how interactive storytelling is used to link narrative elements that bridge the gap between users and their virtual worlds (Gaudenzi, 2019).

This Panel has so far received 2 paper proposal(s).
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