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Where: 2009 Association of American Geographers Meeting (Las Vegas) When: 24th March 2009
The Wilsonian ideal of national self-determination has been a powerful idea driving the reconfiguration of borders and states for the past century. This paper examines one form of discourse vital to the formation of national identities and the forms these identities take on the social networking platform of Facebook. As Facebook is used to articulate the activities of various interest groups, it stands to reason that national aspirations are also articulated as part of the nation-building process. The paper engages the literature of several disciplines to determine the role of electronic media and social networking sites in particular, to explore what forms of media identity are relevant to nation-building in stateless situations. Furthermore, the research will concentrate on how Facebook sites are used to create an image of states and nations, and the problems associated with such images of virtual states, including their creation and consumption. The data gathered will be used to compare and contrast stateless sites across several variables, including use of images and maps to articulate borders and homelands, the types of discourse, the date of Facebook group establishment, number of members and the various networks that the members are a part of in order to establish a location of the member. The case study focuses upon nations that actively seek a state of their own carved from the space of extant states, such as the Basques, the Kurds, the Palestinians, and the Hawaii'ans. Outlines for future work combining social networking studies and geography will be discussed.
Keywords:
nationalism, communications geography, Facebook, representation
LikeCommunity Chartered Credit Unions: Too Far a-Field?
Where: University of North Texas - Corporate Geographies Conference When: February 2007
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