Digital Tribalism and Identity Economies: An Identity Group Theory Analysis of Social Media Communities, Status Competition, and Platform Governance

Abstract Book of the 10th World Conference on Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Digital Tribalism and Identity Economies: An Identity Group Theory Analysis of Social Media Communities, Status Competition, and Platform Governance

Dr. Derek Barker-Ciganik

ABSTRACT:

Contemporary social media platforms have become powerful arenas for the formation, regulation, and contestation of collective identity. While existing scholarship has often examined online communities through the lenses of network theory, platform capitalism, or digital discourse, less attention has been given to the structural mechanisms through which digital groups allocate legitimacy, status, and symbolic resources. This paper applies Identity Group Theory (IGT) to conceptualize social media communities as identity economies—competitive social systems in which belonging, recognition, renown, and regulatory enforcement shape participation and influence. Across platforms such as X, Reddit, TikTok, and algorithmically curated communities, users compete not merely for visibility, but for identity validation within increasingly tribalized digital environments. Through this framework, digital phenomena such as virality, cancellation, influencer hierarchies, moderation practices, and ideological echo chambers are understood as mechanisms of identity allocation and governance rather than purely communicative or technological processes. The paper argues that platform architectures intensify identity salience by rewarding conformity to group norms while simultaneously facilitating intergroup conflict, symbolic exclusion, and resource concentration. By extending IGT into digital sociology, this study offers a novel interdisciplinary model for understanding online polarization, social fragmentation, and platform-mediated power. In doing so, it reconceptualizes social media not simply as communication technology, but as a regulatory ecosystem in which identity itself functions as a core resource. This approach contributes to social sciences, digital studies, and contemporary governance research by providing a systematic framework for analyzing how online communities structure legitimacy, hierarchy, and belonging in the digital age.

Keywords: Identity Group Theory (IGT) Digital tribalism; Social media governance; Identity economies; Online polarization