Stina Bengtsson

Faraway, so close! Proximity and distance in ethnography online

This article argues for a revised importance of distance, besides the much emphasized closeness, in the debate on and use of ethnographic methods in online environments. When returning to the founding fathers of ethnographic methods, distance is often put forward as a core aspect of ethnographic methods, something widely forgotten, or even rejected, in the current debate in the field. Space has been restructured by digital media technologies, and the spatial and temporal proximity of digital media cultures present new challenges for research methodologies. Based on the author’s own experiences of ethnographic fieldwork in digital cultures, and with Henri Lefebvre’s theory of everyday life as a rhythm as vantage point, it is here argued that distance, dialectically interlinked with closeness and proximity, should be given further attention in current research and debate on ethnographic methods used online.

Imagined user modes: Media morality in everyday life

This article deals with the moral dimensions of everyday media use. It discusses the values, strategies and norms of the moral economy of media use in everyday life. First, it identifies three different kinds of values connected with media texts and technologies. Second, it discusses different strategies to create a morally correct balance in everyday life. Third, it puts forward the concept of imagined user modes to deepen our understanding of the moral dimensions of everyday media use. Imagined user modes are preconceptions of different technologies and texts and relate to our ideas of how the media affect those who are using them. They are considered when negotiating with ourselves on proper behaviours in specific situations, and therefore they can be different, depending on individual value systems and ideas of a morally correct behaviour.

The presentation of self in a virtual world: Working in Second Life

Bengtsson analyses work conducted in a virtual world, Second Life, from the perspective of public servants and volunteer journalists. Her analysis focuses upon the virtual workers’ presentations of themselves, their experiences of interaction, and the interaction orders structuring their lives online. These workers related to two different interaction orders in their work: the online and the offline. The public service professionals had to conform to public service regulations regarding transparency, whilst serving diverse clients. The volunteer journalists had to work anonymously and unpaid, but could be playful online. Unpaid working persists in today’s social media environments, but online identities are more likely to be polished for self-promotion than hidden.

Symbolic spaces of everyday life : work and leisure at home

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the role of the media in the symbolic construction of work and leisure at home. Dealing with individuals who represent a post-industrial and cultural labour market and who work mainly at home, the analysis focuses upon the ritual transformations of everyday life and the role of the media within it. Leaning on social interactionist Erwin Goffman and his concepts of regions and frames, as well as a dimension of the materiality of culture, this analysis combines a perspective on media use as ritual, transformations in everyday life and the organization of material space From this perspective, the discussion penetrates the symbolic dimension of media use in defining borders of behaviour and activities in relation to work and leisure at home.

Avatar as Second Suit: Power and Participation in Virtual Work

This article provides an analysis of the experiences of user–avatar relations and interaction of people who work in a virtual world. Earlier research often claims that relationships between users and their avatars are, by nature, strong and intense. By analyzing individuals who conducted paid labor in a number of public institutions in a virtual world, this article argues that the frame of work heavily influenced the professional users’ experiences of using an avatar. The user–avatar relationship was mainly related to how and why the user entered the virtual world, their position in their off-line and online workplaces and, as a result, related to aspects of power and control over the framing of the online arena. Because of these factors, many of the professional users regarded their avatar more as a second suit than, as has often been argued, a second self.

The Right to the Citi(zen) : Urban Spaces in Commercial Media Environments

Following the publication of Henri Lefebvre’s book Le Droit à la ville (1968), a debate has emerged regarding the neoliberal takeover of urban spaces and activism. Nonetheless, in the past 10 years, we have seen the continuous expansion of public space via social networking media and, today, most public institutions in Western states use social networking sites to communicate with their “citizens.” Although there are many serious problems associated with this takeover, little has been said about them so far. In this article, I address the contribution of The right to the city to this debate by analyzing a public institution which tried to establish communication with its “citizens” in an urban space in a virtual world. My analysis concludes that the users of this new media platform did not regard themselves as citizens when they were dwelling in this urban space online, but instead saw themselves as the consumers they were addressed as in this environment.