Flyer (PDF, 2 x A4 sides, 4 MB)
Shaping Virtual Lives
Online Identities, Representations, and Conducts
Edited by Violetta Krawczyk-Wasilewska, Theo Meder, and Andy Ross
In recent years, a new cultural sphere based on instant exchange of
information has led to new kinds of communication, not
merely for
practical purposes but also for entertainment, social contact, the exchange
of beliefs and opinions, and even the
expression of emotions. Online
life has become an integral part of people’s existence and therefore merits
ethnological
research.
This volume presents selected papers from
a panel session on virtual lives held at the 10th Congress of the
International
Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) titled People
Make Places: Ways of Feeling the World, 17–21 April 2011, Lisbon,
Portugal.
The authors investigate a range of topics: rules, rituals,
morals and self-representations in the worlds of social media and
gaming; how avatars are used for self-representation on dating sites; the
rivalry between the inhabitants of Moscow and St.
Petersburg as
expressed on an Internet forum; websites for mourning over and remembering
suicide victims in two countries;
and the way the Internet can be used
by new vernacular religious movements.
Contents
Violetta Krawczyk-Wasilewska and Theo Meder
Preface
Theo Meder
‘You have to make up your own story here’: Identities in cyberspace from
Twitter to Second Life
Jennifer Meta Robinson
Performing self:
Questions of identity competence in a virtual world point to real life
constructions
Óli Gneisti Sóleyjarson
Rules and boundaries: The
morality of Eve Online
Anders Gustavsson
Messages on memorial
Internet websites relating to suicide in Norway and Sweden
Violetta
Krawczyk-Wasilewska and Andy Ross
Matchmaking through avatars: Social
aspects of online dating
Maria Yelenevskaya
Moscow and St.
Petersburg compete: Negotiating city identity on ru.net
Robert Howard
Digital devotees: Vernacular authority in a new kind of religious movement
Review
"This is an interesting and necessary book, which should stand side by side
with Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga's book
Homo
Ludens."
From "Homo Ludens: Describing Virtual Lives" by Mare
Kalda,
Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 57/2014, 189-190
