Performing Citizenship Online: Identity, Subactivism and Participation

This paper calls for the adoption of a culturalist approach to the study of online participation. Notions of such as “civic cultures”, “public connection”, and “subactivism” represent effective theoretical and analytical tools that help grasp the meaning of online grassroots practices which emerge at the crossroads of politics and culture and are rooted in the realm of everyday life. Therefore, online participation is understood as the outcome of broader social changes and changes in the media environment, usually assumed under the labels “web 2.0” and “convergence culture”, co-determining each other. Drawing on empirical evidence from three interrelated research projects focused primarily on young people, the paper shows how participatory uses are unevenly distributed among social network users and acquire different meanings depending on the civic cultures and the “convergent media ecology” inhabited by the individuals.