Transculturality in the internet: Culture flows and virtual publics

Abstract

This article addresses the flows that criss-cross virtual space: flows of information, images and communication. These are cultural flows, or, to use the terminology of Schütz and Luckmann, intersubjective meaning-contexts consisting of values, social rules, world views and patterns of behaviour that are becoming increasingly dissociated from their national base thanks to digital media. They are articulated, passed on, qualified, rejected or transformed into something else in online discourse. The idea of culture as a ‘self-contained sphere’ has become obsolete in an age of digital media. Terms such as transculturality and transnationality reflect socio-cultural developments that are closely linked with the evolution of digital media. This article commences with a theoretical overview of how the social is formed under the influence of cultural flows, asking whether transcultural tendencies are emerging in new virtual publics and how such tendencies can be identified. Empirical findings drawn from a larger project on ‘Subject constructions and digital culture’ show how differences are dealt with according to the divergent tendencies of homogenization, particularization and hybridization.