 Performing embodied identity in virtual worldsUlrike Schultze European Journal of Information Systems, 2014, vol. 23, issue 1, 84-95 Abstract: Embodied identity, that is, who we are as a result of our interactions with the world around us with and through our bodies, is increasingly challenged in online environments where identity performances are seemingly untethered from the user's body that is sitting at the computer. Even though disembodiment has been severely criticized in the literature, most conceptualizations of the role of users' bodies in virtuality nevertheless reflect a representational logic, which fails to capture contemporary users' experience of cyborgism. Relying on data collected from nine entrepreneurs in the virtual world Second Life (SL), this paper asks how embodied identity is performed in virtual worlds. Contrasting representationalism with performativity, this study highlights that the SL entrepreneurs intentionally re-presented in their avatars some of the attributes of physical bodies, but that they also engaged in habitual practices in-world, thereby unconsciously enacting embodied identities in both their ‘real’ and virtual lives. Date: 2014 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:23:y:2014:i:1:p:84-95 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1057/ejis.2012.52 Access Statistics for this article European Journal of Information Systems is currently edited by Par Agerfalk More articles in European Journal of Information Systems from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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