Selfie Citizenship research workshop
16 April 2015,
@The Shed,
Digital Innovation, MMU
Organised by Adi Kuntsman, Farida Vis and Simon Faulkner
Sponsored by Digital
Innovation, Manchester Metropolitan University,
and The Visual Social Media Lab, The University of Sheffield
and The Visual Social Media Lab, The University of Sheffield
The workshop brings together researchers from a variety of
disciplines, fields and backgrounds to explore the notion of “selfie
citizenship” -- the growing use of the selfie-genre and, more broadly, the
networked circulations of individual and group self-portraits for “acts of
citizenship” (Isin 2008).
In the recent years we have become accustomed to photographs
of individuals with hand-written banners, as well as to various selfie memes
and hashtag actions (#NoMakeUpSelfie, #WeAreAllClean, #SmearforSmear as well as
#ICan’tBreathe, #BlackLivesMatter and #UseMeInstead, to mention just a few),
spread on social media as actions of protest and political or social
statements. Their circulation is global, and their iconography is often
deceivingly similar, yet their motivations, causes and context vary – some
stand against police abuse or military occupation, others call for clearer
cities or smaller classrooms, yet others promote a charity cause or a social
awareness, and there are those that incite violence or call for a war.
Further, while some perform citizenship as a form of nationalism, other
mobilise notions of global citizenship, and yet others operate in contexts
where citizenship is absent, in question or violently denied.
Such mobilisation of the selfie genre – understood broadly
as self-portraits in viral digital circulation – clearly challenges the
prevalent popular view of selfies as narcissistic, inherently a-political and
even anti-social. Yet selfie citizenship still remains to be theorised, both as
a framework for different understanding of selfies, and as a way to think
differently about citizenship in the social media age. This workshop was set up
to create a space for an intellectual and political conversation around the
notion of selfie citizenship, bringing together scholars of visual culture,
social and digital media, and cultural citizenship, into a much needed dialogue
that explores the work of selfies, but also charts new directions to think
about citizenship as a political, affective, visual and networked phenomenon.
