This workshop aims to examine the manner in which a complex array of identities – political, cultural, social, and particularly marginal and extreme – are managed and expressed in the online sphere. It seeks to gauge the impact or influence of such sites of identity performance and how the online space itself might serve to advance or hinder the expression of identities which may manifest themselves primarily in this realm. The session will also re-examine the original ideas (e.g. Turkle 1999) concerning the performance of online identity with allied questions about public/private, legality, censorship, ‘net neutrality’, hate speech, social movements and the interaction of media, Internet and society.

Potential contributions could be drawn from studies of:

- extreme political movements

- end of life/suicide forums

- diverse sexuality

- deviance

- anarchism

- art as protest

The overarching point of exploration lies in exploring how the infrastructure of the Internet itself may prescribe limitations and promote formulas which serve to limit and confine potentially ‘undesirable’ expressions of identity.