Danah Boyd wrote: " I finally gave up and realized that I didn't have the proper words for talking about this issue so I wrote an essay with caveats. " In my very humble opinion: please don't give up, it's immensely interesting. I've been looking through abstracts from articles fonund by searching cite-u-like (social network systems) since this came up. I now realize more about what you're up against. an article found on google from the _antrhropology & education quarterly_ apparently addresses some of what you mention. Sorry for the sloppy typing and sloppier referencing, but it's at http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/aeq.1997.28.4.493 - the title is "dialectics of race and nationality: contradictions and philadelphia working class youth" (1997, Jo Ann Scheider). Maybe of interest to you? Best regards, Will William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona --------------------------------- Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection.