Social media and politics of identity

Abstract

In this book, the authors analyse the political aspects of identity, namely the role of digital platforms in setting up symbolic systems, shared knowledge, feelings of belonging, inclusion and exclusion dynamics, innovation and social transformation movements. Based on some ethnographic case studies, they address the growing aspect of interreality that such processes entail: actually, social media created a hybrid social space which puts the digital world and our physical world in constant interaction, with a direct impact on the construction processes of reality and of individual and collective identities. The anthropological gaze as a critical knowledge of current practices and representations proves to be an essential tool to analyse these dynamics, due to its ability to focus and to construe the ways for new forms of negotiation and reproduction of the participants’ identities, but also for new forms of resistance and social change, to become apparent and consolidate in social platforms.