چكيده لاتين
This qualitative study aimed to analyze the social identity construction of women in Khoorchan village within the context of the image-centric platform, Instagram. Focusing on the villageʹs female community, the present study sought to address the theoretical and methodological gap in domestic research, which has predominantly relied on urban contexts and quantitative methods, neglecting the human and descriptive dimensions of marginalized usersʹ lived experiences.
The research was designed within an interpretive-constructivist paradigm using a descriptive phenomenological method. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 Instagram-user women residing in Khoorchan village. The sampling process began purposively with maximum variation (regarding age, education, employment status, and Instagram activity) and continued until theoretical saturation was reached. By the thirteenth interview, new data were reiterating previous concepts and themes; however, to ensure data adequacy, richness, and confirm the achievement of theoretical saturation, two additional interviews were conducted, which confirmed the absence of new themes. Data analysis was performed following Colaizziʹs seven-step method.
The analysis led to the formation of three core (macro) categories, each representing a distinct aspect of the identity construction process:
1.Multilayered Living Between Tradition and the Digital: This category encompasses the struggle for agency, identity reflexivity, and livelihood strategies within Instagramʹs performative realm. It reveals Instagram as a stage for a constant struggle between individual agency (striving for self-actualization, entrepreneurship, and networking) and constraining structures (traditional norms, algorithmic determinism, infrastructural limitations). Within this performative realm, women engage in continuous reflexivity regarding their identity, constructing fluid and hybrid identities. Furthermore, this space has become a vital arena for livelihood strategies, transforming local cultural and social capital into economic and symbolic capital.
2. Decoding Strategies of Feminine Identity in Instagram Performance: This category emphasizes womenʹs active and interpretive actions when encountering Instagram content. Women are not passive consumers but critical interpreters. By discerning the gap between performance and reality, they gradually become aware of the selective and idealized nature of Instagram content. They utilize this awareness to redefine their selfhood and exercise agency within a field of opposing forces (family, local community). This process constitutes a form of practical hermeneutics in the digital space.
3. Borderline Existence: Negotiating to Conquer an Existential Territory Amidst Conflicting Forces: This category focuses on womenʹs existential position at the intersection of the traditional and digital worlds. They inhabit a periphery or borderland and are compelled into daily ontological negotiations to determine the boundaries of their self-presentation, preserve their privacy, and find harmless spaces for expression. The ultimate goal of this negotiation is to conquer an existential territory for the self within difficult circumstances—a territory that could be a successful business page or an internal sense of independence and self-worth.
This study demonstrates that the social identity construction of Khoorchan village women on Instagram is not a linear process but a complex configuration of the three intertwined processes mentioned above. The constructed identity is paradoxical, multilayered, and the result of the dialectical interaction of active agency (manifested as multilayered living and decoding) with constraining structures that impose a borderline position.
