Sharing in Networked Culture: Imagination, labour and desire


My PhD thesis on sharing practices was completed in 2015 at Swinburne University of Technology in the department of Media and Communications.

Abstract

The fundamental question this thesis asks of networked culture is: 
In everyday practices of communication, what is sharing and how is sharing mediated? 

This research emerges from an observation that a framework for sharing is needed, and argues that sharing can be theorised as a coherent and consistent set of elements which are described in this thesis as competencies, materiality, and symbolic values. Analysing empirical data on sharing practices in networked culture, three significant findings emerge which are that sharing is an evolving social norm; that sharing requires immaterial and affective labour, and that reciprocity is a necessary condition of possibility for sharing. 
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Sharing is a distinct form of communication, championed in digital cultures. Through detailed qualitative analysis I uncover what people perceive sharing to be, and pay close attention to what they describe as sharing. Situated within networked culture, as this study is, it is essential to address the relationship of technology and digital culture to sharing. Relationships with technologies and digital culture are shown to be idiosyncratic and burdened with tensions which contradict cultural imaginaries of sharing. There are multiple overlapping imaginaries of sharing, such as: sharing as an inherent social norm; sharing as a frictionless form of communication through social technologies; and sharing as a fraught practice which, when over-performed, undermines and breaks down relationships and reputations. I show how individual perceptions and experiences are situated in relation to these competing imaginaries. Taking a media studies approach I consider why defining sharing is so problematic, examining the difficulties and limitations of assuming a common understanding of sharing. Developing a theory of sharing practice, I demonstrate the productiveness of a practice theory approach for understanding what people do in relation to media. 

Link to thesis:

Sharing in Networked Culture: Imagination, Labour and Desire
This research has now been turned into a book.