Social Identity

Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use

Brown and Levinson’s Politeness develops a model of face‑saving communication that explains how speakers across cultures use linguistic strategies to mitigate social conflict and maintain mutual respect. Central to the theory is the idea that all individuals have a desire to protect both their own and others’ “face,” leading to varied politeness strategies depending on social context and power relations.

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It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

danah boyd uses more than a decade of fieldwork and interviews to show that teenagers’ use of social media is nuanced and purposeful, shaped by social needs for identity, community, privacy, and expression. She argues that many adult fears — about addiction, privacy loss, danger, and bullying — are exaggerated or misunderstood and that teens’ networked lives reflect adaptive social behavior, not pathology.

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Black Memes Matter: #LivingWhileBlack with Becky and Karen

Williams analyzes how memes like #LivingWhileBlack, BBQ Becky, and Karen operate as cultural critique in digital spaces, exposing and resisting White surveillance and racial dominance while providing Black communities with tools for expression and agency. She argues that these memes do more than humorously depict everyday racism—they disrupt dominant narratives and highlight systemic racial inequalities online and offline.

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Social Identity and Intergroup Relations

Social Identity and Intergroup Relations compiles seminal work on how individuals’ self‑concepts are derived from their group memberships, and how these social identities shape perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward in‑groups and out‑groups. The book lays the foundational framework for understanding prejudice, discrimination, group conflict, and intergroup dynamics in terms of cognitive, motivational, and contextual processes.

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Does Race Matter for Police Use of Force? Evidence from 911 Calls

This study investigates whether the race of a civilian influences the likelihood that police officers use force during 911 dispatches. Using a large dataset linking police use of force to the race of both civilians and dispatching officers, the authors find that Black civilians are more likely to experience force—especially when the responding officer is white.

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The Psychology of the Internet

Patricia Wallace’s The Psychology of the Internet provides a comprehensive research‑based overview of how online environments shape human behavior, emotions, and social interaction across contexts such as impression formation, group dynamics, aggression, attraction, altruism, privacy, gaming, development, and gender. The book integrates classic and contemporary psychological research to explain why people behave differently online and how those behaviors both reflect and inform social life on the Internet.

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Collective Social Identity: Synthesizing Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory Using Digital Data

Davis et al integrate Identity Theory (IT) and Social Identity Theory (SIT) by conceptualizing collective identity as a form of group/social identity applicable to activist collectives. Using digital data from YouTube comments on veganism videos, the authors show that collective identity aligns with identity feedback processes and bridges IT and SIT concepts.

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Curation: A Theoretical Treatment

Davis proposes a theoretical framework for digital curation, arguing that it is a central mechanism of sociality in the information‑rich online environment. She distinguishes between productive curation (selecting and sharing content) and consumptive curation (sorting and attending to information), showing how these practices are shaped by social networks and technological design.

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