A space of one’s own: spatial and identity liminality in an online community of mothers

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of an online community in the life of 11 Taiwanese women living in the UK and considers the implications this empirical case has for theorising about motherhood and the spatial dimensions of online/onsite space. Findings from a nethnographic and ethnographic fieldwork show how online discussions reflect and amplify the liminal identities of the community’s members. In looking at doing mothering at a collective rather than at the individual level, this study highlights how collective practices of consumption perpetuate liminal identities, exacerbating consumers’ sense of being out of place. It shows how online space is at the same time the product of online and onsite liminal identities and liminal social interactions and the re-producer of such interactions.