2025/07/01 by Ooko, Gloria
#WhatsApp #counter-publics #identity construction #metaphorical substitution #participation
paper · doi:10.34629/cpublica.863
This article explores the materiality of WhatsApp technology as a tool for unconventional identity construction and negotiation. Drawing from part of the data and findings of my PhD thesis, the article argues that WhatsApp communities conceptualised as digital counter-publics, are still linked to offline realities. This duality both allows for the negotiation and suppression of new identities. The fluidity of WhatsApp technology reshapes the concept of participation, which evolves into a discourse of identification. Those whose subject positions align with accepted norms gain greater freedom to participate, subsequently becoming decision-makers. This dynamic results in the suppression of alternative identities and the emergence of dominant political subjectivities, where the discourse shifts toward differentiating between "those who can participate" and "those who cannot," metaphorically substituting the signification of participation with identification.