Produced subjectivities and productive subjects : locating the potential of the self-reflective blog

Blogging software has popularly been used as a mode of writing about everyday life to interact with others. This thesis examines the political potentials that are opened up by self-reflective blogging. The self-reflective blog is a synergy of self-reflective practices and computer-mediated communication. A genealogy of the history of computer-mediated communication and various public self-reflective practices is conducted to uncover affect as the utility of various economies of subject production. Efforts made to blog-like the efforts made to interact online in other CMCs-are positioned as a kind of affective labor. Adapting Hardt and Negri's (2005) theorization of the multitude, whereby affective labor-the production of social relationshipsis a kind ofbiopolitical production, affect will be determined as a kind ofbiopolitical power that exists in everyday life

DIY Methods 2023 Conference Proceedings

The act of circulating research through zines invites participants into the “gift economy” of zine culture, where knowledge is shared within a system of reciprocal generosity and pleasure in opposition to hierarchical and capitalist forms of knowledge exchange. As zines cut through the often strict and inaccessible boundaries of traditional, peer-reviewed publications, they also allow for the circulation of research to broader audiences, making knowledge more accessible. As such, academic zines transform research into a gift to be shared amongst unknown peers, while also situating the mobilization of knowledge as care work. And so, while we are excited to receive abstracts around diverse themes and across disciplines, we ask participants to think about knowledge as a gift and research as care work during their zine-making process. How do these visions of knowledge and research mobilization affect how you view your research, others’ research, and/or yourself