KTub8

Digital Solidarity
social contexts at the same time and to express their
own personality through the unique combination of
these contexts embodied in their own life. Each of these
contexts is partial and none encompasses the whole of
the person completely. Thus, the identity of people is
expressed less as an essentialist in-dividuality but rather
as a relational singularity. 73 This allows for a greater
diversity of roles and identities of each person, but also a
greater degree of freedom and flexibility towards each of
them. Yet, this amounts neither to a multiple personality
disorder nor to a free play of compartmentalised
identities as early internet theory assumed. 74 Instead,
a patchworked identity in which the different patches
can evolve according to different rhythms following the
less and less standardised biographies of people. This
multiplicity on an individual level leads to a greater
capacity for diversity on the macro-level of the collective
or social movement. The new social forms are not
expressions of unified life projects, rather they are ways
to act in the world with varying horizons. And thus,
what they require are not comprehensive ideologies and
commitments, but pragmatic experimentation with
finding and developing ways to act within situations
and advance the desires animating each of them.
An active support of diversity serves both a desire to
overcome isolation and rebuild the social. It also serves
as strategy for increasing the field of experimentation
and learning, and breaking through the boundaries of
an obsolete cultural landscape. The greater diversity
within these new forms of solidarity is enabled by the
expanded communicative capacity of digital networks
through which they coordinate themselves. There
is little need to restrict expression. It can take place
53