“If you talk to someone under eighteen in the UK, you go to jail”: Exploring chronotopic identities of transnational Iranians on live streaming apps

Abstract This study examines how Iranians engage in identity work on live-streaming apps across geographical, political, and cultural borders. Drawing upon nexus analysis and ‘chronotope’ as an analytical tool and employing discourse analysis of a twenty-minute conversation between a young girl in Iran and two boys in Europe, the study demonstrates how specific chronotopes, imbued with certain values, identities, and moral behaviors, traverse borders, while revealing the impact of online platforms in mediating these interactions. The findings highlight the dynamic negotiation of identity and sociocultural norms in transnational digital spaces, shedding light on how Iranians in Iran and the diaspora adapt their expressions of self within these interconnected worlds. (Online communication, chronotopic identities, Iranian diaspora, transnationalism, nexus analysis)