Digital virtual mediation and the formation of jilbab girls as modern consumer subjects.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the experiences of Jilbab girls with digital virtual consumption (DVC) in girl games, which offer opportunities for active participation in global consumer culture and have the potential to shape the formation of modern consumer subjects. The study addresses key gaps in the literature, focusing on three areas: 1) the mediation process of global consumer culture within the digital virtual space; 2) the dialectic between global and local consumer experiences in DVC; and 3) the transformative potential of DVC in shaping modern consumer subjects. Drawing on Giddens' theories of the formation of modern subjects and the mediation of experience (1984, 1991), as well as Denegri-Knott and Molesworth's work on DVC (2010, 2012, 2013), the study adopts a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Data were collected through phenomenological interviews and visual narrative inquiries with twenty-eight Jilbab girls from a traditional Javanese Muslim community in Indonesia. This research presents three significant contributions to the understanding of DVC and the formation of modern consumer subjects. First, it introduces the concept of digital virtual mediation, explaining the mediation process of DVC practices through four stages: embeddedness, disembedding, DVC practices, and reembedding. These stages provide a clearer understanding of how DVC mediates consumer experiences. Second, the study explores DVC experiences among non-Western consumers, revealing how the global-local dialectic unfolds in DVC. It highlights the interconnectedness and mutual influence of global and local consumption, even within digital virtual spaces. The findings suggest that glocalization in DVC occurs through experimentation, imagination, desire stimulation, and the regimentation of global consumer culture, while local culture influences DVC through recontextualization and moral entanglement. This novel insight provides an elaborative understanding, as most existing research focuses primarily on material culture. Finally, the thesis emphasizes the transformative potential of DVC, particularly in girl games, in shaping modern consumer subjects. It shows how DVC contributes to the routinization of modern subjectivity and the sequestration of experiences, which ultimately shape the formation of modern consumer subjectivities. In addressing the need for research on global consumer culture in digital spaces, the thesis highlights the complex interplay between local and global consumer cultures in both material and digital virtual contexts. It demonstrates how DVC, global consumer culture, and the formation of consumer subjects interact, shaping the global consumption experiences of young consumers in diverse cultural settings. Moreover, the study underscores the crucial role of DVC in modernising young Muslim girls living in traditional Muslim societies.