Capital forms in communicating identity projects and managing community conflicts :|modest fashion online consumption community

Abstract

This thesis investigates the utilization of capital forms in communicating identity projects and managing community conflicts over a modest fashion online consumption community on Instagram. The literature on dynamics of and conflicts in consumption communities lacks the analysis of communities with moral sensitivities. Similarly in the modest fashion literature, little is known about the heterogeneous views of covered Muslim women on the modesty rules in the digital environment. Drawing from Bourdieu’s field theory, this thesis examines how the Instagrammers of the modest fashion online consumption community utilize capital forms to communicate their identity projects and manage community conflicts arising from heterogeneous views on modesty rules. This study examines the communication of the community Instagrammers' identity projects through the narrated experiences in social media narratives. The community dynamics and conflicts are discussed over these identity projects. The seven identity projects are found by the analysis of Instagram data that is obtained through netnography. The analysis revealed that Instagrammers as moderators can manage community tensions by reconciling conflicting identity projects through strategically utilizing capital forms. This study suggests that in the communities that are gathered around morally sensitive consumption ideology, the consumption ideology can be both the reason and a solution to community conflicts.