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INCELS: You’re not alone! Join our forum and talk to people just like you: the digital architecture and online public sphere of the incel community.
Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education.
2022 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Incels (involuntary celibacy) is an online community that is active in the manosphere. This community and the platforms that they have created are rapidly becoming a primary source of information and a place for social connections for like-minded individuals. Little to no research has been made when it comes to analyzing the framework and technological aspects of a website created by and for the incel community. Previous research has primarily focused on defining key categories and themes regarding already existing content and discourses of the manosphere. These previous studies reveal among other things that these groups (of men) believe themselves to be inferior to different sorts of groups in society, but especially to women. This thesis used a qualitative approach and the theory of digital architecture by Michael Bossetta, as well as Jürgen Habermas theory of the public sphere, to consider how the digital architecture, namely the chosen website (incels.is) functionalities and structure, can affect the communication process between users and spread the incel community’s ideology to the public. The aim of this thesis was also to study the digital sphere of the incel community to see how and if the website can be considered a public sphere, and if different aspects of the websites digital architecture can form a sphere, and with it a public. The analysis reveals that the digital architecture of the website affects communication as well as user participation. However, the digital architecture does not promote any type of ideology to others outside of the community. Furthermore, this study identifies different aspects of the digital architecture on the platform that materializes and constitutes an alternative online sphere, as well as an alternative online public.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 38
Keywords [en]
incels, manosphere, digital architecture, public sphere, virtual sphere, counter publics, affective publics
Keywords [sv]
incels, manosfär, digital arkitektur, offentlighetsteorin, offentlighet, digital offentlighet, publiker, motpublik, affektiva publiker
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-49549OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-49549DiVA, id: diva2:1704602
Subject / course
Media and Communication Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2022-12-21 Created: 2022-10-18 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf