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How to Be Visible in Student Politics: Performativity and the Digital Public Space in Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2020

Julian Kuttig Open the ORCID record for Julian Kuttig [Opens in a new window]  and
Bert Suykens
Julian Kuttig
Affiliation:
Julian Kuttig (julian.kuttig@ugent.be) is PhD Fellow in the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University.
Bert Suykens
Affiliation:
Bert Suykens (bert.suykens@ugent.be) is Associate Professor in the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University.
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

Bangladeshdigital public spaceFacebookpolitical performancesocial mediaSouth Asiastudent politics
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 707 - 738
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Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc., 2020

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