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

互联网如何改变人们创建和建立联系的方式？从某些方面来看，互联网托管了一些平台，据说这些平台加剧了社会分歧，削弱了日常互动的功能，这些互动功能有助于加强社会联系。从其他方面来看，互联网越来越多地成为个人表达的关键平台，从根本上改变了人们的交流方式，并培养了新形式的社交机会。这个博士论文项目研究了在线平台是如何被利用来在被社会边缘化的个人中创建和维护社区的。由于这些背景相对较新，而且在某种程度上是匿名的，该项目有可能帮助科学家更好地理解创造性过程对于形成新的和持久的社交网络所必需的东西。除了为人类学研究生提供实证、科学数据收集和分析方法方面的培训提供资金外，还与各公司和其他组织分享项目的数据和结果，以帮助优化互动和交流。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。这一博士论文研究项目提出的问题是，在虚拟空间中出现和扩散偏见和刻板印象的方式是否存在显著差异，以及在逆境中创造性地构建社区形式的方式。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？研究人员将使用一个专门为建立社区而设计的在线通信和数字分发平台，跟踪其用户的导航模式和行为。数据收集和分析战略包括个人和集体访谈，在五个不同的在线互动环境中对参与者进行九个月的观察，以及对论坛和留言板档案进行叙述和文本分析。收集的数据将有助于关于社会形态、身份构建和扩大科学技术参与的理论辩论。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.