The political is personal: an analysis of crowd-sourced political ideas and images from a Massive Open Online Course

Humphrey, Mathew; Umbach, Maiken; Clulow, Zeynep

Abstract

The analysis of ideology at the vernacular level requires access to peer-to-peer political discussions amongst non-specialists. It is in these discursive exchanges that political views are articulated, refined, and revised. Such exchanges are, however, difficult for the researcher to capture. Here we take c.25,000 learner comments (along with several hundred image uploads) from a Massive Open Online Course, run in conjunction between the University of Nottingham and the British Library, as a source of such peer-to-peer political discussions. Learners discussed five topics, of which we have selected 'Freedom', 'Justice', and 'Community' for close analysis. We find that the idea of 'freedom' generated by far the most learner discourse, and in both the comments and image uploads this concept was both positively appraised and highly personalised. 'Justice' was generally seen as something to be delivered by political institutions, although accounts of injustice were frequently appraised through either personal experience or the experiences of others. Accounts of 'community' often focused on the trappings of nationhood, but some comments, and many images in particular, highlighted moments of ephemeral and more personal, self-chosen communities such as music concerts or hobbyist conventions. Overall, both comments and images show that, in their interpretation of the conceptual vocabulary of politics, people frequently frame their understanding through personal experience in a very direct manner. It is not only true that the 'personal is political', but also, for many, that the 'political is personal'.

Citation

Humphrey, M., Umbach, M., & Clulow, Z. (2019). The political is personal: an analysis of crowd-sourced political ideas and images from a Massive Open Online Course. Journal of Political Ideologies, 24(2), 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2019.1589958

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Apr 24, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 24, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 25, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Political Ideologies
• Print ISSN: 1356-9317
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9613
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 121-138
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2019.1589958
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1472512
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/13569317.2019.1589958?scroll=top&needAccess=true
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Political Ideologies on 24.04.2019 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13569317.2019.1589958
• Contract Date: Jan 15, 2019