Abstract
The dream of a post-national reality is rooted in the advent of the Internet and resurfaces with each new immersive realm of cyberspace, including social virtual reality (VR) platforms. Social VR platforms consist of thousands of interconnected, user-created 3D virtual worlds, which serve as spaces for various socio-cultural activities, such as gatherings, games, and work Social VR is often viewed by researchers as a site for forming post-national communities that transcend physical borders. However, this view is rooted more in the methodological assumptions of existing studies (methodological cosmopolitanism) than in the actual nature of these virtual cultures. First, field research has predominantly been conducted in English, thus privileging users fluent in international communication. Second, these studies often rely on “digital dualism,” a framework that treats physical and digital spaces as distinct. While some argue that the primary constraint of social VR is users’ imagination, this ethnographic inquiry seeks to question whether we can genuinely envision a post-national (virtual) reality. Social VR platforms offer a opportunity to pose anthropological questions: when users are given the freedom to create a new reality, what image of reality is deeply rooted in the human imagination? The aim of this paper is to present my findings from ethnographic studies on the reproduction of national identities in subtle ways within social VR. It describes how banal nationalism is unconsciously replicated in virtual landscapes and territories—often visualized as national islands surrounded by a virtual ocean—in conflicts, game narratives, and the very structure of social VR platforms.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
VIRTUAL REALITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY, COSMOPOLITANISM, CYBERCULTURE, NATIONALISM
