Online Political Participation and Formation of Subjectivity

Abstract

This chapter examines Chinese young people’s online activities as a form of political participation through which their different political subjectivities are formed and flexibly enacted. By examining their everyday online political participation, I identified three dispositions apparent in their online participatory activities in different circumstances: “angry youth”, “powerless cynics”, and “realistic idealists”. Reflecting their accounts of these participatory activities, these dispositions as manifestations of subjectivities are shaped by the contingent participatory circumstances of the young people and are connected to their previous history of participation. Their online political participation serves as a vehicle for the formation of their subjectivity in the distinctively Chinese context. This chapter will discuss the key strategies employed by young people in their online political participation, strategies which illustrate their tactical engagement with social structures and power relations to effect social change. They also illustrate their understanding of politics in terms of social change initiatives embedded in people’s everyday activities rather than in merely confrontational practices. I argue that the online political participation of young Chinese people is a channel through which individuals can make sense of the material and social conditions of citizenship in China. The Internet as a medium extends the realm of participants’ social engagement, affording an accessible venue for young people’s social participation. It facilitates their negotiation and formation of subjectivity, an essential element of citizenship that informs the (changing) understanding of their positions in and relationships with their society (Lehmann, 2004).