A sanctuary built on conflict
This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other’s notions of the past. The data comes from...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Linköping University Electronic Press
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research |
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| Online Access: | https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/3946 |
| _version_ | 1818114542177091584 |
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| author | Robin Ekelund |
| author_facet | Robin Ekelund |
| author_sort | Robin Ekelund |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other’s notions of the past. The data comes from a netnographic fieldwork within six such retrospective groups. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (Harrison 2013, Latour 2005). The analysis thusly focuses on human (the members of the groups) as well as non-human actors (the operative logic of Facebook) and study how these produce associations between the past and the present. An overall result of the study is that the retrospective Facebook groups are not characterised by conflict. Instead, they are produced as places of sanctuary, where associations with the past becomes a basis for a nostalgic feel-good culture. However, the analysis also shows that the sanctuaries build on the production of a discontinuity and a conflict between the past and the present. Using Boym’s concept of ruinophilia, as well as Bauman’s concept of retrotopia, the article discusses how the conflicted discontinuity between the past and the present produces an us-and-them relationship where group members can come together in a nostalgic as well as a critical care for the world as it (in their perspectives) was supposed to be. The analysis also illustrates how members’ use of sources and references becomes a mere stylistic performance of authority, as the operative logic of Facebook not only enables but also constrains group interactions, reducing the members’ possibilities of having profound interactions and negotiations based on their memories and notions of the past. The article hereby contributes to the emerging research on digital memories in general, and memory work on Facebook in particular.
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| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T03:52:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ab8fd515338247e4806866d4ba8a0f56 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2000-1525 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T03:52:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Linköping University Electronic Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-ab8fd515338247e4806866d4ba8a0f562022-12-22T01:21:53ZengLinköping University Electronic PressCulture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research2000-15252022-07-01142A sanctuary built on conflictRobin Ekelund This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other’s notions of the past. The data comes from a netnographic fieldwork within six such retrospective groups. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (Harrison 2013, Latour 2005). The analysis thusly focuses on human (the members of the groups) as well as non-human actors (the operative logic of Facebook) and study how these produce associations between the past and the present. An overall result of the study is that the retrospective Facebook groups are not characterised by conflict. Instead, they are produced as places of sanctuary, where associations with the past becomes a basis for a nostalgic feel-good culture. However, the analysis also shows that the sanctuaries build on the production of a discontinuity and a conflict between the past and the present. Using Boym’s concept of ruinophilia, as well as Bauman’s concept of retrotopia, the article discusses how the conflicted discontinuity between the past and the present produces an us-and-them relationship where group members can come together in a nostalgic as well as a critical care for the world as it (in their perspectives) was supposed to be. The analysis also illustrates how members’ use of sources and references becomes a mere stylistic performance of authority, as the operative logic of Facebook not only enables but also constrains group interactions, reducing the members’ possibilities of having profound interactions and negotiations based on their memories and notions of the past. The article hereby contributes to the emerging research on digital memories in general, and memory work on Facebook in particular. https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/3946Digital memoryConnective memoryDigital heritageNostalgiaDisputesAuthority |
| spellingShingle | Robin Ekelund A sanctuary built on conflict Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research Digital memory Connective memory Digital heritage Nostalgia Disputes Authority |
| title | A sanctuary built on conflict |
| title_full | A sanctuary built on conflict |
| title_fullStr | A sanctuary built on conflict |
| title_full_unstemmed | A sanctuary built on conflict |
| title_short | A sanctuary built on conflict |
| title_sort | sanctuary built on conflict |
| topic | Digital memory Connective memory Digital heritage Nostalgia Disputes Authority |
| url | https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/3946 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT robinekelund asanctuarybuiltonconflict AT robinekelund sanctuarybuiltonconflict |