Find three attachments from John Campbell for this topic. The first paper ‘Conflict and Identity Shape Shifting in an Online Financial Community’ is the focus of discussion but the other attachment ‘Designing Sustainable Virtual World Ecosystems: Identity, Conflict and Governance’ and 'Abnormal Stock Market Behaviour and Communicative Practice In an Online Financial Community' provide some context about where this research has come from.


Conflict and Identity Shape Shifting in an Online Financial Community: This paper challenges the traditional explorations of online communities that have relied upon concepts and assumptions of trust and social cohesion. In our analysis, conflict becomes more than a mere artifact of dysfunctional communication and provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction and identity shape shifting within an online community. We advance a model that describes the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression in technologically-enabled communities that take the form of contemporary tribalism. We argue that this tribe-like conflict embodies important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the contradictory social roles sometimes found in online environments. This research offers a critical information systems perspective that focuses on exposing the power relations within an online financial community and their link to identity shape shifting behaviors. The analysis reveals how conflict between positions of power can help to align the values and ideals of the online community for the benefit of all not just the knowledgeable and well-informed. With this study we seek to initiate a moral dialogue that calls for a re-examination of the design and constitution of online financial communities.