Spontaneous vigilantism and conflictogenic potential of the everyday Internet discourse

Abstract

This article discusses the conflictogenic potential of spontaneous vigilantism in third spaces. Vigilantism is associated with usurpation of the function of justice by unauthorized persons. Vigilantism can be institutionalized and spontaneous, which is related to disorganized participation of individuals in penalizing the violators of social norms. In the conditions of post-truth, the important role in the formation of vigilant discourse is played by the environments of everyday communication – the so-called third spaces. In the context of third spaces, communication is realized beyond the institutional field, i.e. political parties and social movements. Besides the interpersonal relations, the discussion of crucial social issues also takes place in third spaces, which requires assessment from the perspective of its conflictogenic potential. The novelty of this article is determined by the relevant theoretical aspects – analysis of the phenomenon of post-truth, public sphere, echo chambers and third spaces, as well as the authorial empirical research dedicated to the content of messages in third spaces of the social network Vkontakte. The study of spontaneous vigilantism employs the range of posts from the online community “Overheard” in 15 megacities for the past two years. The quantitative and qualitative content analysis revealed the key topics with a vigilant problematic, which were assessed through the prism of conflictogenic potential. The conclusions is made on the contradictory nature of spontaneous vigilantism in the Russian third spaces.