TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Coding Platform as Digital Enclave
T2 - A Case Study of Protesting “996” on GitHub
AU - Zhen, Lichen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 (Lichen Zhen). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://ijoc.org.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This article examines how Chinese netizens are responding to the widespread phenomenon of mandatory overwork amidst the Chinese state’s crackdown on dissenting opinions. Drawing on Squires’ conceptualization of enclaved public spheres, this article theorizes a social coding platform (GitHub) as a digital enclave (for Chinese software developers). A critical discourse analysis was performed on comments retrieved in 2019 from GitHub. GitHub users are found to discursively create a white-collar yet workingclass identity to fight for their labor rights and rely heavily on media exposure to expand their influence. This case study extends Squires’ notion of enclaved public spheres to digital space and provides a critical lens to understand the communicative functions and collaborative potential of the social coding platforms.
AB - This article examines how Chinese netizens are responding to the widespread phenomenon of mandatory overwork amidst the Chinese state’s crackdown on dissenting opinions. Drawing on Squires’ conceptualization of enclaved public spheres, this article theorizes a social coding platform (GitHub) as a digital enclave (for Chinese software developers). A critical discourse analysis was performed on comments retrieved in 2019 from GitHub. GitHub users are found to discursively create a white-collar yet workingclass identity to fight for their labor rights and rely heavily on media exposure to expand their influence. This case study extends Squires’ notion of enclaved public spheres to digital space and provides a critical lens to understand the communicative functions and collaborative potential of the social coding platforms.
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M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108632125
SN - 1932-8036
VL - 15
SP - 886
EP - 904
JO - International Journal of Communication
JF - International Journal of Communication
ER -