Platform Anarchy: Exploring the Micro-sociality of Caring In-common Through Social Media Platforms

Abstract This paper explores the micro-sociality of caring in-common through social media platforms as a prefigurative experience of communal anarchy grounded in mutual aid. The concept of micro-sociality developed from sociological work that re-emphasises the communal as central to understanding community. My theoretical framework engages with communal micro-sociality through the taxonomy of care, constituted by inter-related primary, secondary, and tertiary circles. Drawing on 12 months of netnographic data, my analysis focuses on the micro-sociality of caring in-common across social media users in two contexts—fans of the UK rock band IDLES and fans of Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature. My findings excavate how social media platforms can operate as sites of common encounter, through which the micro-sociality of caring in-common emerges. More specifically, I outline how secondary care relations grounded in mutual aid act as a foundation for more intimate, primary care relations as well as solidarity orientated tertiary care. In closing, my discussion considers the prefigurative implications of how the micro-social relationships and bonds which constitute caring in-common serve to define it.