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Generating a Social Movement Online Community through an Online Discourse: The Case of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

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Abstract

Online communities, created and sustained by people sharing and discussing texts on the internet, play an increasingly important role in social health movements. In this essay, we explore a collective mobilization in miniature through an in-depth analysis of two satiric texts from an online community for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). By blending a sociological analysis with a rhetorical exploration of these texts, our aim is to grasp the discursive generation of a social movement online community set up by sufferers themselves to negotiate and contest the dominating biomedical perception of their condition.

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Acknowledgements

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article: The Norweigan Research Council, Research Program of Health and Care Sciences (grant no. 212978 and 204324).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Olaug S. Lian

  2. Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, 0318, Oslo, Norway

    Jan Grue

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  1. Olaug S. Lian
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  2. Jan Grue
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Correspondence to Olaug S. Lian.

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Lian, O.S., Grue, J. Generating a Social Movement Online Community through an Online Discourse: The Case of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. J Med Humanit 38, 173–189 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-016-9390-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-016-9390-8

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