Phenomenology of Online Spaces: Interpreting Late Modern Spatialities

Viktor Berger
2020 Human Studies  
Sociological theories of space have so far not provided an in-depth analysis of online spaces. The paper addresses this issue by means of Löw's relational theory of space. As this theory mainly focuses on material spaces, it is necessary to embrace the phenomenological perspective in order to apply it to the virtual realm. More recent phenomenological research has highlighted the ongoing mediatization or virtualization of the life-world. These theories, and presence research more generally, are
more » ... useful for examining the layers of virtual presence. This paper focuses on two emblematic types of spaces: multiplayer online role-playing games and Skype video chats. The first represents an online version of a Schutzian finite province of meaning, while Skyping is an example of how the paramount reality of everyday life expands into the virtual realm. Albeit differently, actors in both cases constitute hybrid, virtualmaterial spaces with various forms and degrees of virtual presence. User experiences in these spaces are in line with contemporary sociological diagnoses indicating the vanishing experience of living in space and the general tendency of late modernity to question previous social forms of modernity. ). In addition, questions concerning the perception, conception and classification of spaces emerged early on and continue to remain of importance (Durkheim and Mauss 1903/1963; Shields 1991) . Besides the action theory approach (Löw 2001/2016), there is a great deal of diversity in theoretical orientations, including the (post)structuralist (Foucault 1982/1984), Marxist (Harvey 2001 Lefebvre 1974 Lefebvre /1991) and actor-network theory accounts (Law 2002) of social spaces. A common trait among these theories is their focus on the constitution and perception of what they regard as "real" spaces. Meanwhile, everyday life is increasingly influenced by modern information and communication technologies (ICT), chief among them internet-based tools and applications. We use the internet for work and personal reasons, and an ever greater share of our communication activities takes place via the internet. Since no medium is neutral, ICTs necessarily shape everyday life (Ollinaho 2018). Online spaces allow for a different kind of communication than face-to-face interactions, which affects both its style and content (Longhurst 2013; Friesen 2014). However, despite the importance of the online world for everyday life, theories of social spaces have so far not developed a deep interest in this social domain. This has to do with the fact that it is controversial whether online spaces are a subject of a theory of social spaces. In the following, I will argue that, indeed, sociological theories of space need to deal with online spaces. Online spaces, as understood here, are constituted when two or more people interact with each other using ICTs providing access to the internet. This is a purely formal definition -what matters is that the internet creates interactions between people who are not close to each other physically. This paper will attempt to interpret two characteristic forms of online spaces. Without questioning the relevance of structural approaches, the paper will highlight the perspective of actors: how they create and perceive online spaces, and the relationship between online and physical space. In this, I will rely on the relational sociology of space as well as on phenomenological concepts of place and space (Löw, Waldenfels). While these theories offer useful points of reference, they also have significant shortcomings with regards to the online realm. The phenomenology of Alfred Schutz will therefore be deployed to overcome these theoretical problems. An updated Schutzian approach is a suitable complement to a relational theory of online spaces. Applying this theoretical framework, I will examine the spatiality of both video conversations and multiplayer online role-playing games. These spaces can be interpreted in the broader context of late modernity because they are typical forms of late modern spatial experience. Relational Theories of Space Sociological and social science approaches to space tend to be skeptical of absolutistic concepts of space, which conceive space as an immaterial container existing independently of the objects it comprises. In contrast, relational theories suggest that (social) spaces are constituted by their elements and the relationships between them, which are the products of human agency. According to
doi:10.1007/s10746-020-09545-4 fatcat:gebsud5jq5eibi3b4wxfp2fbiq