Public self-expression, identity and the participatory turn: The power to re-imagine the self

Rethinking the researcher-researched relationship

“…Similarly, a Critical Indigenous Qualitative Research approach can be applied along with interpretive research practices that aim to be ethical, transformative and participatory (Denzin et al, 2008), and can recover the texture and nuance to illuminate our research participants' local identities and to problematise the researcher-researched relationship. "These recent moves in decolonization illustrate ways in which scholars engaged in decolonizing research remain constantly mindful of the ways in which the process or outcomes of their research might reify hegemonic power thereby creating marginality" (Swadener & Mutua, 2008:33), and instead promote self-expression amongst research participants (see Tomaselli & Dyll-Myklebust, 2015;Burger, 2015).…”

Disrupting video game distribution

“…Users perform different social roles in these groups than on Steam as a whole. As Mariekie Burger argued, online participation increasingly moves into these more intimate communities, in which it is inextricably linked to identity performance (Burger, 2015). Accordingly, the Habermasian notion of the public sphere is not flexible enough to accommodate these groups, which should be interpreted on the level of micro publics, comparable in scope to the "new social movements" (Burger, 2015: 269) of the 1990s or more recent forms of "subactivism" (Burger, 2015: 271).…”