Damiani, Esteban (2018) An ethnography of Facebook and the production of values in a political campaign: a study of the use of Facebook for the 2014 Frente Amplio national elections in Uruguay. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis explores how and why Facebook became a valuable space for the 2014 political campaign of the Uruguayan Broad Front (Frente Amplio). The research focuses on the analysis of a distinctive form of value production led by users’ participation that Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen have conceptualised as productive publics. Similarly, the concept of collective identity proposed by Alberto Melucci allows the deconstruction of the processes whereby various actors establish and negotiate the boundaries, meanings and goals for their political group and the rest of society. The thesis pays especial attention to the measuring capacities of Facebook to develop three main conceptualisations and engage in debates on valuation and online media. In line with Celia Lury and Noortje Marres’ analysis of the multivalence of online platforms, the first point considers the users’ loose connections on productive publics and the coexistence of multiple interests as part of Facebook’s assets for the production of value. A second point of concern is the popularisation and extension of what Wendy Espeland and Michael Sauder have described as an audit culture and the use of measuring devices for making constant valuation based on a general equivalent provided by Facebook. A third point of discussion concerns Erving Goffman’s theory on frame analysis and Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s theory on justifications to focus on the process of valuations of the public participation in a campaign. The thesis has found an academic gap in the ethnographic studies on the valuation of Facebook users’ participation in a political campaign in Uruguay and contributes to those debates by analysing participant-observation data around the interactions on Facebook pages dedicated to the Frente Amplio

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Facebook (Electronic resource) -- Social aspects, Online social networks -- Political aspects -- Uruguay, Disinformation -- Political aspects, Propaganda -- Technological innovations, Uruguay -- Politics and government, Political campaigns -- Uruguay, Political candidates -- Uruguay, Elections -- Uruguay -- History -- Sources, Frente Amplio (Uruguay)
Official Date:	July 2018
Dates:	Date Event July 2018 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Lury, Celia ; Tkacz, Nathaniel
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain), Society for Latin American Studies
Extent:	xiii, 266 leaves : illustrations (chiefly colour)
Language:	eng

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