In this paper we explore how confidence has become a technology of self that invites girls and women to work on themselves. The discussion demonstrates the extensiveness of what we call the 'cult(ure) of confidence' across different areas of social life, and examines the continuities in the way that exponents of the confidence cult(ure) name, diagnose and propose solutions to archetypal feminist questions about labour, value and the body. Our analysis focuses on two broad areas of social life in which the notion of confidence has taken hold powerfully in the last few years: popular discussions about gender and work, and consumer body culture. Examining the incitements to self-confidence in these realms, we show how an emergent technology of confidence, systematically re-signifies feminist accounts, by turning away from structural inequalities and collectivist critiques of male domination into heightened modes of self work and self-regulation, and by repudiating the injuries inflicted by the structures of inequality. We conclude by situating the 'confidence cult(ure) in relation to wider debates about feminism, postfeminism and neoliberalism.

This paper examines the growing prominence accorded to the idea of 'resilience' as a regulatory ideal, locating it in the context of a 'turn to character' in contemporary culture which we see as part of a wider psychological turn within neoliberalism. Building from discussions of 'resilience' as a quality demanded and promoted by public policy in the context of austerity and worsening inequality, we argue that resilience has also emerged as a central term in popular culture in genres such as self-help literature, lifestyle magazines and reality television as well as in a burgeoning social media culture focussed on positive thinking, affirmations and gratitude. It calls on people to be adaptable and positive, bouncing back from adversity and embracing a mindset in which negative experiences canand must-be reframed in upbeat terms. The paper examines three case studies-women's magazines, self-help books, and smartphone apps-to explore how resilience is constituted, how it operates and how it materialises across different sites. We extend existing work by highlighting the classed and gendered dimensions of injunctions to resilience, pointing to the ways that middle class women are hailed as emblematic 'bounce-backable' subjects. We explore how notions of elasticity, inspiration and affirmation are deployed in ways that systematically outlaw critique or any need for social transformation, while inciting a vast range of physical, social and, above all, psychological labours on the part of 'resilient' subjects.

In this paper we explore how confidence works as a technology of self, exhorting women and girls to act upon themselves, and how it is reconfiguring feminist concerns. Our analysis demonstrates how the confidence cult(ure) has materialised in three different sites: discussions about women in the workplace; texts and practices promoting 'confident mothering'; and contemporary sex and relationship advice. We show that confidence acts as a disciplinary technology of self which is addressed almost exclusively to women and is articulated in highly standardized terms which disavow any difference between and among women. It is an individualising technology which demands intense labour, places the emphasis upon women self-regulating and locates the source of the 'problems' and their 'solutions' within a newly upgraded form of confident subjectivity, thus rendering insecurity and lack of confidence abhorrent. We then discuss how the confidence culture is deeply implicated in the new luminosity of feminism, and we argue that it contributes to the remaking of feminism in three central ways: 1) by continuing and promoting elements of postfeminist sensibility, yet through celebration rather than repudiation of feminism; 2) through an inclusive address that expunges difference and the possibility of its critique; and 3) by favouring positive affect and outlawing 'negative' 'political' feelings. We argue that this move, which calls forth a new kind of a 'cool' 'feminist' subject, is simultaneously political, psychological and aesthetic.

The cultural dimensions of online communication : a study of breast cancer patients' internet spaces This document is the author's final manuscript version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the publisher's version remain. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. CMC, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the role of cultural elements in shaping participation in, and design of, CMC environments. I use my study as an exploratory site for identifying cultural dimensions that should be taken account of in studying online spaces, and in designing, moderating and participating in those spaces. I show how both the breast cancer sites that I studied and their participants emphasise a sense of global similarity and commonality, while at the same time this CMC context is embedded within, and shaped by, specific cultural elements. I discuss how breast cancer patients' communication takes place within cultural settings that are fundamentally demarcated by North-American linguistic, national, temporal, spatial, religious, ideological and discursive borders. I conclude with a broader discussion of the importance of examining the cultural aspects of online contexts that we study, and by extension, the way that cultural elements shape the methodologies that researchers employ.

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