A Narrative Practice Approach to Identities: Small Stories and Positioning Analysis in Digital Contexts

Abstract

This chapter discusses small stories and positioning as epistemological and analytical tools for the study of identities and affect in digital contexts. We start by discussing the shift from views of narrative as a textual mode of communication to stories as embodied communicative practice associated with identity positioning at different levels. We then move on to illustrate positioning analysis as an empirical framework for investigating how narrative identities are emploted and updated, reiterated and sedimented as ways of telling and as types of participation. Drawing on our respective work on sharing emotion and the self in social media, we call for the extension of identity positioning analysis to the study of affective positioning practices in light of their heightened importance in the performance of 'authentic' identities in digital contexts. We show how a YouTube vlogger enacts her affective positioning through specific sets of linguistic, paralinguistic, and embodied markers that cue her affective orientations at different levels of her vlogging narrative activity. We conclude by foregrounding the continued relevance of positioning analysis for the study of identities in digital contexts and the need to keep updating it in response to 'new' tensions and dilemmas arising from emerging narrative and identity modes.

Online identities in and around organizations: A critical exploration and way forward

“…Giles (2006) has analyzed how individuals portray their anorexia as a positive identity and lifestyle instead of an eating disorder. Giaxoglou and Georgakopoulou (2021) examined how a cancer patient through her vlog storytelling projected an "affective self" that aimed to "create and maintain a sense of control over the illness" (p. 254). Kendall (2011) discusses how blue-collar individuals try to "convey a sense of middle-class culture" when online (p. 141).…”

“…In these novel “circuits of communicative capitalism” (Dean, 2009), online political subjects “slacktivism” is commodified and monetized. In addition, new identity tools, designs, and underlying algorithms (Cover, 2014) increasingly reinforce the value of the data profiles collected and sold by organizations (Haimson and Hoffmann, 2016).…”

“…With enhanced accessibility, there is an added requirement of “authenticity” of desirable identities required to connect with a potential audience (Marwick, 2013). Thus, these new forms of digital work could have damaging impacts on individuals who carry marginalized and non-normative identities (Haimson and Hoffmann, 2016; Marwick, 2013).…”

“…The online self, saturated by multiple social demands, can be even more problematic because of the recent push for notionally “real” representations online (Haimson and Hoffmann, 2016; Marwick, 2013; Van der Nagel and Frith, 2015). The use of verifiable names on different platforms might be regarded as representing a situation of “context collapse” (Marwick and Boyd, 2011).…”

“…With increased access and visibility in public virtual spaces, users were able to experiment with their identities and focus on strategic self-representations of desired selves (Marwick, 2013; Nagy and Koles, 2014; Zhao et al, 2008) performed for progressively larger audiences (Haimson and Hoffmann, 2016; Slater, 2002). People could strategically produce and expose huge amounts of content about themselves to stand out from the crowd (Papacharissi, 2010).…”