Red de Argentinos : identity and citizenship in a virtual community

This thesis examines the construction of social spaces in the interstices of the Internet by members of dispersed national societies. Red de Argentinos is explored as an example one of such spaces. Red emerged as an email based solidarity network of the Argentine diaspora and is now a community attached to multiple locales, for which cyberspace has a central articulatory role. These locales include the homeland but, as well, the variety of places in which individuals identifying themselves as Argentinian may be found. This project analyzes some of the factors that allow these types of virtual communities to develop. Special attention is placed on the elements that ensure bonds between members. Self-organization, solidarity, and positioning in relation to the Argentine social reality are seen here as factors that foster the development of a sense of citizenship that is constructed from below in this particular online social space. The need to include the Internet practices of diasporas as part of emerging online cultures in Latin America is finally suggested as an avenue for future exploration