2020/01/24 by Julian Kuttig, Bert Suykens · 1 voice · 12 citations
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Art #Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development #Computer science #Engineering #Gender studies #Geography #Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics #Law #Media studies #Performative utterance #Performativity #Performing arts #Political science #Politics #Public relations #Public space #Salience (neuroscience) #Sociology #Visibility #Visual arts
paper · doi:10.1017/s0021911819001839
published in The Journal of Asian Studies 79(3), 707-738 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2020/01/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In Bangladeshi student politics, political performances in public spaces play an essential role in establishing patronage relationships and determining local authority structures. As Thomas Blom Hansen has famously argued, “visibility means everything” in such a context. With the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook, new digital public spaces have appeared. Focusing on ruling-party student activists at Rajshahi University, this article examines how student politicians in Bangladesh utilize Facebook to become visible in their everyday politicking. It shows how longstanding performative repertoires in the nondigital public space have gained a new salience through performances in the digital public space. It is those digital spaces that allow the performer to rearticulate even mundane everyday events as political performances. As these new digital public spaces impact the politics of visibility, it is crucial to integrate them in our efforts to understand local politics in South Asia and beyond.