Final published version
Licence: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing precarity at the intersection of individual and collective life
T2 - A Membership Categorisation Analysis of Tensions and Conflict in Identities within an Online Biosocial Community
AU - Cheded, Mohammed
AU - Curry, Niall
AU - Gilchrist, Alan
AU - Hopkinson, Gillian
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - This paper explores how individuals living within high-stakes precarious categories navigate their identity within online spaces. Using Membership Categorisation Analysis, we investigate howcategorical inferences are indexed by those individuals within online biosocial communities in everyday speech, as part of their construction of identities. More specifically, we analyse onlineinteractions of women who have been identified as carrying a BRCA gene mutation in an online biosocial community. Our findings show how (1) the online spaces participate in constituting andsustaining a form of collective responsibility, where those who are within a high-stakes precarious identity category are expected to not only support and educate each other, but also monitor thecompliance to category predicates, and (2) the tensions and conflict in making sense of, belonging to, resisting and sustaining a category membership often occur when there are clashes with the socio-moral order. Overall, this paper’s contributions are twofold, first, methodologically, the use of Membership Categorisation Analysis provides an insightful analytic approach to identities, online communities and their organisation. Second, the emerging tensions identified provide insight into the complex ways in which online communities offer a forum in managing precariousidentity as individual and collective life intersect.
AB - This paper explores how individuals living within high-stakes precarious categories navigate their identity within online spaces. Using Membership Categorisation Analysis, we investigate howcategorical inferences are indexed by those individuals within online biosocial communities in everyday speech, as part of their construction of identities. More specifically, we analyse onlineinteractions of women who have been identified as carrying a BRCA gene mutation in an online biosocial community. Our findings show how (1) the online spaces participate in constituting andsustaining a form of collective responsibility, where those who are within a high-stakes precarious identity category are expected to not only support and educate each other, but also monitor thecompliance to category predicates, and (2) the tensions and conflict in making sense of, belonging to, resisting and sustaining a category membership often occur when there are clashes with the socio-moral order. Overall, this paper’s contributions are twofold, first, methodologically, the use of Membership Categorisation Analysis provides an insightful analytic approach to identities, online communities and their organisation. Second, the emerging tensions identified provide insight into the complex ways in which online communities offer a forum in managing precariousidentity as individual and collective life intersect.
KW - Identity
KW - Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA)
KW - online
KW - online community
KW - precarious category
KW - responsibility(ies)
U2 - 10.1177/13505084221131643
DO - 10.1177/13505084221131643
M3 - Journal article
VL - 30
SP - 42
EP - 64
JO - Organization
JF - Organization
SN - 1350-5084
IS - 1
ER -