Virtual intercultural bridgework: Social media, virtual cosmopolitanism, and activist community-building

Abstract

Social media facilitates a global–local orientation to the world that allows individuals to engage in virtual community-building and participate in communication to build global citizenship. This research situates virtual cosmopolitanism in the age of new media and globalization, describing it as a means for trans-local and transnational community-building for social justice movements and activism, including community liaison-building across corporeal borders and boundaries. New media as a site of imagined communities that become larger than their component parts is then analyzed through examining several virtual cosmopolitan communities. The essay concludes with assumptions about the qualities of virtual cosmopolitan communities, and recommendations for how they can facilitate intercultural liaisons for social justice activism and community-building across difference.