From: "Jeremy Crampton" <jcrampton@gsu.edu> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Re: New Theoretical Approaches to the Self in Cyber-Culture Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 13:15:34 -0500 Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org

Has anybody done work on Foucault's idea of the "technologies of the = self" in cyberspace? <snip>

I've been thinking about how Foucault's notion fits into my own dissertation work on rural youth in the US and the ways these youth bring the Internet into their negotiations of sexual and gender self-identities. One thing I've considered is combining Jose Estban-Munoz's use of Foucault's "ethics of self" with "technologies of self" (see the article "Pedro Zamora¹s Real World of Counterpublicity: Performing and Ethics of the Self" in Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performances of Politics for Munoz's take on the "ethics of self"). ...but, is that just too much mixing of Foucault, or what? In "the care of the self" Foucault suggested that some production of self identity could be seen as a means of crafting a broader sense of possibility for personhood...that by constructing a sense of self through style, publicity, and claims to originality, people could open spaces for others to create different ways of being in the world. Munoz takes this idea and examines the potential of media (specifically television) to open spaces where advocates of particular ideas and/or representing groups we don't regularly see in the media could build out (albeit problematically) different ideas of the self in the service of others. but, the piece that's coming up for me is this: technologies don't inherently/neutrally provide opportunities for constructions of the self as much as they are part of and reflect historical/political conditions that define who is recognizable...so, in my own research, i don't think that the question is about the role the Internet plays in young queer lives (how this "new technology" creates the space for self-formation to happen differently) but rather what conditions have defined the Internet as *the* place to go for "identity work" over other resources such as schools, parents, churches, etc. i dunno. i'm still just reading as much as i can in this list and other places to think through these ideas. hope the conversation carries on. best, marygray ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mary L. Gray <mlgray@ucsd.edu> Department of Communication University of California, San Diego vox: 502/451.5003 mail: PO Box 4004, Louisville, KY 40204 http://weber.ucsd.edu/~mgray ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~