scholarly journals Fan Affirmation: Alethurgy on an Indie Music Fandom

Author(s):  
Rodrigo César Tavares Cavalcanti ◽  
André Luiz Maranhão de Souza-Leão ◽  
Bruno Melo Moura

ABSTRACT Context: highly identified with the genre, indie fans are engaged and productive, especially in virtual communities where they circulate opinions and share experiences. Objective: since relations mediated by consumption provide conditions for constituting subjectivities, we rely on Foucault’s theory with the aim of analyzing how the interactions of indie music fans evidence an alethurgical process of subjectivation. Methodology: to do this, we performed a netnography on a large global forum for indie music discussion. Results: results show a cultural configuration in which the communal sense legitimize conducts, based on emotional testimonies and manifestations of expertise, which establish the very condition of fanity associated with the capacity of its members to outline the fan object, develop a fan authority and then to position themselves in relation to the market logic in which the genre is inserted. Conclusion: thus, we conclude that indie music fans perform an alethurgy of affirmation. The study innovates by adopting the concept of alethurgy as a means of analyzing the subjectivation of fans, which is evidenced as a theoretical gap in the field of CCT.

Author(s):  
Rodrigo César Tavares Cavalcanti ◽  
André Luiz Maranhão de Souza-Leão ◽  
Bruno Melo Moura

ABSTRACT Context: highly identified with the genre, indie fans are engaged and productive, especially in virtual communities where they circulate opinions and share experiences. Objective: since relations mediated by consumption provide conditions for constituting subjectivities, we rely on Foucault’s theory with the aim of analyzing how the interactions of indie music fans evidence an alethurgical process of subjectivation. Methodology: to do this, we performed a netnography on a large global forum for indie music discussion. Results: results show a cultural configuration in which the communal sense legitimize conducts, based on emotional testimonies and manifestations of expertise, which establish the very condition of fanity associated with the capacity of its members to outline the fan object, develop a fan authority and then to position themselves in relation to the market logic in which the genre is inserted. Conclusion: thus, we conclude that indie music fans perform an alethurgy of affirmation. The study innovates by adopting the concept of alethurgy as a means of analyzing the subjectivation of fans, which is evidenced as a theoretical gap in the field of CCT.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gladys Teresita Lechini ◽  
José Marcelino Fernández Alonso

The assumption of the Group of 20 (G20) rotating presidency in December 2017 has created a meaningful window of opportunity for Argentina in order to wield its influence on the international agenda and build its reputation within the global arena. In addition, the Argentinean G20 presidency has become a significant chance to project a Southern and/or developing perspective within this global forum established to debate and address the most pressing economic and political international challenges. This article aims to analyse the agenda and challenges of the Argentinean G20 presidency. In so doing, it attempts to shed light on the following questions: What mechanisms or means will the Argentine Republic deploy in order to exert its influence on the group? Will Argentina represent the voice of Latin American and emerging countries or will it have an acquiescent behaviour towards the central powers? Will the Argentinean presidency be able to ease the group’s internal tensions? Finally, might the Argentinean presidency overcome the critics regarding the G20’s legitimacy?


10.28945/4505 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 039-064
Author(s):  
Rogerio Ferreira da Silva ◽  
Itana Maria de Souza Gimenes ◽  
José Carlos Maldonado

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study of Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP) evaluation methods that aims to identify their current status and impact on knowledge sharing. The purposes of the study are as follows: (i) to identify trends and research gaps in VCoP evaluation methods; and, (ii) to assist researchers to position new research activities in this domain. Background: VCoP have become a popular knowledge sharing mechanism for both individuals and organizations. Their evaluation process is complex; however, it is recognized as an essential means to provide evidences of community effectiveness. Moreover, VCoP have introduced additional features to face to face Communities of Practice (CoP) that need to be taken into account in evaluation processes, such as geographical dispersion. The fact that VCoP rely on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to execute their practices as well as storing artifacts virtually makes more consistent data analysis possible; thus, the evaluation process can apply automatic data gathering and analysis. Methodology: A systematic mapping study, based on five research questions, was carried out in order to analyze existing studies about VCoP evaluation methods and frameworks. The mapping included searching five research databases resulting in the selection of 1,417 papers over which a formal analysis process was applied. This process led to the preliminary selection of 39 primary studies for complete reading. After reading them, we select 28 relevant primary studies from which data was extracted and synthesized to answer the proposed research questions. Contribution: The authors of the primary studies analyzed along this systematic mapping propose a set of methods and strategies for evaluating VCoP, such as frameworks, processes and maturity models. Our main contribution is the identification of some research gaps present in the body of studies, in order to stimulate projects that can improve VCoP evaluation methods and support its important role in social learning. Findings: The systematic mapping led to the conclusion that most of the approaches for VCoP evaluation do not consider the combination of data structured and unstructured metrics. In addition, there is a lack of guidelines to support community operators’ actions based on evaluation metrics.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella Forgie ◽  
Hollis Lai ◽  
Bo Cao ◽  
Eleni Stroulia ◽  
Andrew James Greenshaw ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED As many as 80% of internet users seek health information online. The social determinants of health (SDoH) are intimately related to who has access to the internet and healthcare as a whole. Those who face more barriers to care are more likely to benefit from accessing health information online, granted the information they are retrieving is accurate. Virtual communities on social media platforms are particularly interesting as venues for seeking health information online because peers have been shown to influence health behaviour more than almost anything else. Thus, it is important to recognize the potential of social media to have positive mediation effects on health, so long as any negative mediation effects are reconcilable. As a positive mediator of health, social media can be used as a direct or indirect mode of communication between physicians and patients, a venue for health promotion and health information, and a community support network. False or misleading content, social contagion, confirmation bias, and security and privacy concerns must be mitigated in order to realize full potential of social media as a positive mediator of health. In any case, it is clear that the intersections between the SDoH, social media, and health are intimate, and they must be taken into consideration by physicians. Here, we argue that a paradigm shift in the physician-patient relationship is warranted, one where physicians: a) acknowledge the impacts of the SDoH on information-seeking behaviour, b) recognize the positive and negative roles of social media as a mediator of health through the lens of the SDoH, and c) use social media to catalyze positive changes in the standard of care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Villa ◽  
Gabriella Pasi ◽  
Marco Viviani

AbstractSocial media allow to fulfill perceived social needs such as connecting with friends or other individuals with similar interests into virtual communities; they have also become essential as news sources, microblogging platforms, in particular, in a variety of contexts including that of health. However, due to the homophily property and selective exposure to information, social media have the tendency to create distinct groups of individuals whose ideas are highly polarized around certain topics. In these groups, a.k.a. echo chambers, people only "hear their own voice,” and divergent visions are no longer taken into account. This article focuses on the study of the echo chamber phenomenon in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, by considering both the relationships connecting individuals and semantic aspects related to the content they share over Twitter. To this aim, we propose an approach based on the application of a community detection strategy to distinct topology- and content-aware representations of the COVID-19 conversation graph. Then, we assess and analyze the controversy and homogeneity among the different polarized groups obtained. The evaluations of the approach are carried out on a dataset of tweets related to COVID-19 collected between January and March 2020.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Louise Ann Lyon ◽  
Chelsea Clayton

Female-focused, grassroots communities purporting to help women learn to code are popping up in a variety of settings, indicating the motivation on the part of the participants to evade male-dominated settings while learning. However, little is known about how these groups function as an activity system. With current technology enabling the forming of virtual communities and the meteoric rise in use of the Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) platform, a group of women have formed a coaching and learning community designed to help women move from Salesforce administrators to software developers through learning to code. We used activity systems analysis (ASA) to investigate this real-world instance of the larger phenomenon using an ethnographic approach. We used ASA to organize and make sense of the data by first creating a table listing the points on the activity system triangle (subject, rules, object, etc.) and filling in the points of the triangle based on the design of the coaching and learning group as described by participants; this gave us a high-level view of the activity system. To understand the subjects’ point of view of the system, we then created a new column in the table to fill in themes that emerged from our qualitative data analysis organized by dimension of the activity system. This process enabled us to capture the activity and the voices of participants as well as tensions that had emerged in the system. Findings show a range of outcomes, from participants crediting the group as a kickstart to the journey to successfully landing a job as a developer to members stalling in their progress after involvement. Results also show that purposeful tensions of welcoming novice questions and offering unsolicited verbal encouragement built into the activity system create a welcoming, safe environment for women learning to code.


Libri ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuguang Li ◽  
Andrew Cox

Abstract Among online communities of customers there are a number of different types of group that need to be distinguished. One interesting type are virtual product user communities, i.e. company sponsored online forums where product users share usage experience and collaboratively construct new knowledge to solve technical problems. The purpose of this paper is to show that these “virtual product user communities” are a distinct type of customer group with knowledge innovation capability. The research adopts a method combining observation and content analysis of discussion threads where technical problems are solved, complemented by thematic analysis of interviews with forum members to explore its character, especially its knowledge related attributes. The paper confirms empirically that the virtual product user community is a distinct type of virtual community and can be differentiated from other virtual communities of consumers. In addition, an enhanced classification framework, extending Porter’s (2004) classic 5Ps model, is proposed to highlight knowledge-related activities in virtual communities. Of particular interest is that the findings suggest that knowledge-related activities should be considered as an important attribute in defining and classifying virtual communities. In terms of practical implications, it is recommended that the virtual product user community should be given appropriate support from top management in order to fully exploit its knowledge innovation value. Moreover, tailored facilitation strategies to promote knowledge construction activities and community development can be developed in accordance with its unique attributes. The paper precisely distinguishes one specific type of innovative virtual community consisting of product users from other online customer communities. Moreover, it outlines a revised virtual community classification framework, which can be widely applied in analysing features of online groups. Its key attribute of knowledge-related activity redirects attention to virtual communities’ knowledge innovation capabilities.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e046998
Author(s):  
Louise Shaw ◽  
Dana Jazayeri ◽  
Debra Kiegaldie ◽  
Meg Morris

IntroductionVirtual communities of practice (VCoPs) use a common online platform to provide healthcare professionals with the opportunity to access highly specialised knowledge, build a professional support network and promote the translation of research evidence into practice. There is limited reporting of how best to design and administer VCoPs within healthcare organisations. The primary aim of this scoping review is to identify the best methods used to establish and maintain VCoPs. Findings shall be used to develop a flexible framework to guide the establishment and facilitation of a VCoP for healthcare professionals to ensure the translation of falls prevention clinical guidelines into practice.Methods and analysisA five-stage scoping review process will be followed based on Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and refined by the Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology. An initial limited search of PubMed and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature will identify relevant studies and assist with search term development. This will be followed by a search of five online databases to identify papers published from January 2010 until November 2020. Papers will be independently screened by two reviewers, and data extracted and analysed using a reporting framework. Qualitative data will be analysed thematically and numerical synthesis of the data will be conducted.Results and disseminationThe results of this scoping review will highlight the best ways to design and manage VCoPs in healthcare organisations. The findings will be presented at relevant stakeholder workshops, conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.


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