Selfie Citizenship

This collection reflects on the emerging phenomenon of ‘selfie citizenship’ which capitalises on individual visibility and agency, at the time when citizenship itself is increasingly governed through biometrics and large-scale dataisation. Today we are witnessing a global rise of politicised selfies - photographs of individuals with hand-written notes or banners, various selfie memes and hashtag actions - spread on social media by ordinary citizens in actions of protest or social mobilistion. Contributions in this collection range from discussions of citizen engagement, to politicians’ selfies, to selfies as forms of citizen witnessing, to activist selfies, to selfies without a face. The chapters cover a broad range of geopolitical contexts –China, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, the UK and the US – and are aimed at students, researchers, activists and media practitioners.