@article{2026:kaushik:care_or_co,
title = {Care or control in times of crisis? Gendered identity narratives and democratic resilience in digital public sphere},
year = {2026},
note = {Crises intensify struggles over collective identity, as political
actors compete to define who “we” are under uncertainty, within
digital environments where algorithms shape which narratives gain
visibility. While existing research shows how exclusionary identity
narratives align with platform logics and contribute to democratic
backsliding, less is known about how inclusive narratives that might
sustain democratic resilience perform in the same settings. This
article argues that democratic resilience depends on whether
narratives that transform uncertainty into solidarity grounded in
shared vulnerability can gain traction in the digital public sphere.
Drawing on relational sociology, feminist political theory, and
digital communication, it distinguishes between exclusionary identity
control narratives and inclusive identity care narratives. To examine
their relative performance, the study analyses 13,866 Facebook posts
from Spain and Italy (2019–2021), using the COVID-19 pandemic as a
quasi-natural experiment and scaling qualitative coding of identity
narratives through a large language model to compare engagement
patterns. The findings show that control narratives have an inherent
engagement advantage across crisis periods and national contexts.
However, care narratives significantly exceed their own baseline
engagement during the crisis, indicating increased audience
receptivity to messages of care under conditions of social
vulnerability. These results shift analytical attention what erodes
democracy to the narrative construction that may sustain it,
highlighting the contingent potential of inclusive identity politics
in digital public spheres.},
journal = {Culture, Practice & Europeanization},
pages = {105--132},
author = {Kaushik, Kavyanjali},
volume = {11},
number = {1}
}