Ethnicity, Social Capital and the Internet

Abstract

This article explores websites developed to express the interests and experiences of young Chinese people in Britain. Drawing on content analysis of site discussions and dialogues with site users, we argue these new communicative practices are best understood through a reworking of the social capital problematic. First, by recognizing the irreducibility of Internet-mediated connections to the calculative instrumentalism underlying many applications of social capital theory. Second, by providing a more differentiated account of social capital. The interactions we explore comprise a specifically 'second generation' form of social capital, cutting across the binary of bonding and bridging social capital. Third, judgement on the social capital consequences of Internet interactions must await a longer-term assessment of whether British Chinese institutions emerge to engage with the wider polity.

Being Chinese or being Scottish: National identification and intergroup attitudes of British born Chinese children

“…To date, research on BBC children has taken a sociological approach (Parker & Song, 2006, focusing predominantly on their academic achievements (Archer & Francis, 2007;Francis & Archer, 2005). Archer and Francis (2006) suggest that, when it comes to research, BBC children's psychological wellbeing, cross-cultural experiences and cultural adaptations have been neglected.…”

Romanian diaspora in the making? An online ethnography of romaniancommunity.net

“…The decision is informed by the specificities and manifestations of the phenomena to be studied. There are only a few studies which credit the internet with a significant role in the shaping of identitarian discourses and in most cases the accent has fallen on the static content of personal pages and diasporic websites (Parker & Song, 2006;Thompson, 2002) rather the dynamic interactions which take place on the online discussion fora (Chan, 2005;Elias, Lemish, & Khvorostianov, 2007). Even fewer of these studies adopt an ethnographic approach to these online community formations (e.g., Ignacio, 2005;Miller & Slater, 2000).…”

“…Apart from Cheung (2004), many other scholars also argue that the internet has contributed greatly to the re-invention of diasporic connections and therefore leads to new forms of identification (Nedelcu, 2000;Parker & Song, 2006). Other scholars caution against the assumption that a change of medium necessarily needs to be equated with a change in what is actually transmitted or in the types of communities that it produces (Mandaville, 2001).…”

(Virtual) ethnicity, the Internet, and well-being

“…As online and off-line environments draw closer together, consumers may encounter a convergence of their cultures. For example, Parker and Song (2006) in a study into second-generation, British-born Chinese noted how this group established Web sites to affirm a positive selfidentity, addressing a wider perception of a latent collective identity among a geographically dispersed group. Another motivation was to affirm a positive British Chinese identity through the Internet to the wider British society.…”