“Om jag ser det här, så borde alla se det här” : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om existentiellt meningsskapande genom‘performativ aktivism’ på sociala medier

Sammanfattning

What meaning can individuals derive from participating in socially engaging online practices, beyond the wish to change society for the better? This study explores the possibilities of existential meaning-making in performative activism, and how the subjective identity that takes shape around it has a contributing effect. This is understood through the theoretical lenses of digital limit situations, practices and places, a combination of performativity and self-presentation, together with theories of the public sphere. Drawing upon a constructivist ontology and a phenomenological-hermeneutic epistemology, the phenomena was approached through qualitative interviews, which resulted in seven participants interviewed. Through an thematic analysis method, the material reveals that performative activism, as well as the wish to change society for the better, has a function of making the chaotic existential space of everyday life more graspable and assured on different levels of being. This sheds new light on the discussion of performative activism and how the different ways of maneuvering everyday life in a digital world filled with vulnerability can be expressed on social media.