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Networked Participation: Selfie Protest and Ephemeral Public Spheres

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The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self

Abstract

This essay investigates the way in which distinctions between individual practices and collective participation have been reshaped through the political practices of selfie protest. From the viewpoint of micro–macro relations, selfie protest is a connective form of strategy to handle the tension between the public and private sphere over political and civic issues producing ephemeral public spheres. These spheres are visible both to ‘ad hoc’ publics and to the mass media, performing the function of ‘irritating’ the latter. Online participation is therefore the product of a tension between the desire for social inclusion and the desire to be seen in public, and it is this tension that leads make visible a ‘we sense’, a shared sentiment that develops into a common.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Giovanni Boccia Artieri

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  1. Giovanni Boccia Artieri
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Correspondence to Giovanni Boccia Artieri .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

    Donatella Della Ratta

  2. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Geert Lovink

  3. Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Teresa Numerico

  4. John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

    Peter Sarram

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Boccia Artieri, G. (2021). Networked Participation: Selfie Protest and Ephemeral Public Spheres. In: Della Ratta, D., Lovink, G., Numerico, T., Sarram, P. (eds) The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65497-9_21

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