Deliberation or what? A study of activist participation on Social Networking Sites

摘要

This paper addresses social networking sites and their promise of deliberation. Based on a (n)ethnograpic inspired case study of middle class activists in southern Stockholm, the question this paper seeks to discuss is whether the activists in my study used SNSs for deliberative purposes or for something else. The aim is to understand and discuss contemporary practices of activist political participation online. In this paper it will be argued that rather than deliberation activists were engaging in practices of online updating. Such practices will be understood in light of late modern theories of reflexivity, identity negotiation and maintenance.