Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Forms of Sociality and Community Construction within Digital Spaces

互联网如何改变人们建立和建立联系的方式？从某些方面来看，互联网承载的平台据说加剧了社会分化，削弱了负责加强社会联系的日常互动功能。从其他方面来看，互联网日益成为个人表达的重要平台，从根本上改变了人们的沟通方式，并为新的社交形式创造了机会。这个博士论文项目研究了如何利用在线平台在社会边缘化的个人中创建和维护社区。由于这些背景相对较新，而且在某种程度上是匿名的，因此该项目有可能帮助科学家更好地理解创造性过程对形成新的和持久的社交网络是必要的。除了为人类学研究生提供实证，科学数据收集和分析方法的培训提供资金外，项目的数据和调查结果还可以与公司和其他组织分享，以帮助优化互动和沟通。该项目还扩大了传统上在科学和技术领域代表性不足的群体的参与。这个博士论文研究项目询问是否有偏见和刻板印象的方式显着差异出现和扩散在虚拟空间，以及社区形式的方式是创造性地构建在逆境的背景下。在数字环境中，社区是如何形成的，社会性是如何构建的，身份是如何策划的？使用一个专门设计用于构建社区的在线通信和数字分发平台，研究人员将跟踪其用户的导航模式和行为。数据收集和分析策略包括个人和小组访谈，在五个不同的在线互动环境中进行为期九个月的参与者观察，以及对论坛和留言板档案的叙述和文本分析。收集的数据将有助于社会形成、身份建构和扩大科学技术参与的科学的理论辩论。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

How is the internet changing the ways people create and build connections? By some measures, the internet has hosted platforms that are said to exacerbate social divisions and attenuate the features of daily interaction responsible for reinforcing social ties. By other measures, the internet has increasingly become a key platform for personal expression, fundamentally transforming the way that people communicate, and fostering opportunities for new forms of sociality. This doctoral dissertation project examines how online platforms are being leveraged to create and maintain communities among individuals who are socially marginalized. Because these contexts are relatively new, and by some measure anonymous, the project has the potential of helping scientists better understand what creative processes are necessarily to the formation of new and durable social networks. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, data and findings from the projects with be shared with companies and other organizations to help optimize interaction and communication. The project also broadens the participation of groups traditionally underrepresented in science and technology. This doctoral dissertation research project asks whether there are significant differences in the way that biases and stereotypes emerge and proliferate within virtual spaces, and the ways that forms of community are creatively constructed within contexts of adversity. How is community formed, sociality constructed, and identity curated in digital contexts? Using an online communication and digital distribution platform specifically designed as an application for building communities, the researcher will track the navigational patterns and behaviors of its users. Data collection and analytical strategies include individual and group interviews, nine months participant observation within five different online interactive environments, and narrative and textual analysis of forum and message board archives. The collected data will contribute to theoretical debates about social formation, identity construction, and the science of broadening participation in science and technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.