New Media, New Logics: power and participation among activists in southern Stockholm

Abstract

This paper discusses the implications of the increasing use of social networking sites for political participation emerging outside parliamentary arenas. The paper is empirically based in a (n)ethnographic study of a network of middle-class activists in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen (southern Stockholm). They were engaged in issues such as saving the local bathhouse, lobbying for a cultural centre, preserve green areas and the quality of life in the attractive and well-located sister suburbs. The studies in southern Stockholm suggest that an increase of social networking sites develops a new kind of network logic underlining identity negotiation as a motivator for political participation. This logic contributes to rationalized practices for expressions of affinity, which in turn disciplines the individual users to connectedness with like-minded people in the neighbourhood through continuous practices of updating.