Workshop: Everyday Politics and Social Media

Convenors:

Dr Elisabetta Costa, British Institute at Ankara (BIAA)
Dr Razvan Nicolescu, UCL Anthropology

Introduction

Debates about the impact of social media on politics are now well established. It is acknowledged that social media are involved in different levels of political participation, from local campaigns and engagement with regional elections, up to more visible national uprisings, transnational protests and forms of solidarity. But almost all this work derives from studies where the academic focus is political action, or what can be called 'formal politics'. By contrast, this workshop interrogates different forms of everyday politics on social media, and their social and political consequences. It introduces the results of the Why We Post project whose broad based ethnographic studies suggest that in small communities, political participation on social media is influenced by local norms, social relations, and media usage patterns. Scholars from different disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, political science, and media and communication studies will present their research on the role of social media in shaping political engagement in everyday life, and in transforming local political practices and meanings.

Programme

Registration, coffee and tea 9:30 - 10:00

Session 1 - Chair: Sandrine Roginsky 10:00 - 11:30

Antonia Gama
Right to remain: favela-activism and the role of social media within the context of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

Yenn Lee
Online misogyny as a spectator sport and 'mirroring' as a feminist device: A case study of the Megalia phenomenon in South Korea

Murali Shanmugavelan
Anti-caste internet memes: a study of production, circulation and political conversations online in India

Coffee and tea 11:30-11:45

Session 2 - Chair: Razvan Nicolescu 11:45 - 13:15

Paolo Gerbaudo
Unfriending Mubarak: Trolling as everyday practice on Facebook pages in Egypt

Nael Jebril and Matthew Loveless
The Role of Generational Predictors in Shaping. Political Engagement through Social Media

Elisabetta Costa
Social Media, the visible and the invisible in Southeast Turkey

Lunch 13:15 - 14:15

Session 3 - Chair: Elisabetta Costa 14:15 - 15:45

Sandrine Roginsky
Social media and European Parliament

Razvan Nicolescu
Networking Everyday Politics. How Social Media talks Politics in Southeast Italy.

Liana Chua
Cute chains and ethical claims: quotidian politics in the social media-scape of orangutan conservation

Coffee and tea 15:45 - 16:00

Roundtable - Concluding Remarks, Chaired by Daniel Miller 16:00 - 17:00

Wine reception 17:00-18:00

Link(s)

• Download the poster (PDF)
• Why We Post project website