64.4% of the global population were internet users and 59.4% of the global population were social media users in January 2023 (Statista, 2023). As the virtual space expands, search engines/applications/platforms located in a context of neoliberal ideological hegemony encourages competition through maximization of online interaction and service penetration into unexplored hinterland. The use of the virtual space becomes an ever-encompassing existential reality of one's everyday life. This participation is a complex phenomenon that gives rise to digital cultures that have continuities between the physical and virtual worlds with the interplay of power and control, inclusion and exclusion, normative and non-conforming, identity assertion and cancellation, global and local, and so on., creating a vibrant arena for anthropological exploration.
Digital cultures are oriented to algorithmic performance, creating dependency and control through man-machine interaction and anthropomorphic visualization of the virtual space. They include larger geopolitical issues of surveillance and governmentality bringing with them critiques of policies. This interphase also creates great potential for outreach and development paradigms. Digital cultures are not opposed to “traditional” or “real” forms of relationship. The online and offline worlds penetrate each other deeply and in complex ways (Miller and Slater, 2000), at different scales of research objectives, and yet they form a part of the world system, be it in terms of kin relationships, education systems, diasporic population, recreational/leisurely activities, developmental practices, social activism and movements/ the conquest of rights, and so forth.
In this, the panel hopes to create a platform that brings together researches that highlight digital cultures at various scales, envisioning a on theoretical, methodological, and/or practitioners' perspective in an intersectional space of gender, race, ethnicity, class, caste, and onwards. It also encourages presenters to reflect on injustices, subaltern voices, questions of ethics and policy, and/or effective impact and celebration of successes.
