Sociologists have debated whether meaningful emotional relationships can be formed on-line. Drawing on Mauss’ concept of the gift, I explore how caregivers who participate in Hope, an on-line support forum dedicated to HIV/AIDS, incorporate moral percepts and understandings about ethics into their caregiving experiences. Their intense discussions on the essence of familial loyalties give rise to emotionally vibrant, empathic communities in which a socio-emotional economy is formulated. Can the Internet act as a moral space? How are concepts such as reciprocity, obligation, and commitment talked about and practiced in an on-line forum that exists in the ever present?
Ahmed S. ( 2004) Collective feelings or, The impressions left by others. Theory, Culture & Society21(2): 25-42.
2.
Bauman Z. ( 1993) Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
3.
Ciambrone D. ( 2002) Informal networks among women with HIV/AIDS: Present support and future prospects. Qualitative Health Research12(7): 876-896.
4.
Clark C. ( 1990) Emotions and the micropolitics of everyday life: Some patterns and paradoxes of place. In: Kemper DT (ed.) Research Agenda in the Sociology of Emotion. New York: Albany State University, 305-335.
5.
Clark C. ( 1997) Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
6.
Denzin NK ( 1998) In search of the inner child: Co-dependency and gender in a cyberspace community. In: Bendelow G and Williams SJ (eds) Emotions in Social Life. London: Routledge, 97-119.
7.
Douglas M (1990) Foreword: No free gifts. In: Douglas M (ed.) Mauss M (original 1954) The Gift: The Forms and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Routledge, ix-1.
8.
Eysenbach G., Powell J., Englesakis M., Rizo C., and Stern A. ( 2004) Health related virtual communities and electronic support groups: Systematic review of the effects of on-line peer to peer interactions . British Medical Journal328(7449): 1166-1170A.
9.
Ferris KO ( 2004) Transmitting ideals: Constructing self and moral discourse on Loveline. Symbolic Interaction27(2): 247-266.
10.
Flicker S., Haans D., and Skinner HA ( 2004) Ethical dilemmas in research on Internet communities. Qualitative Health Research14(1): 124-134.
11.
Fox RC, Swazery J. ( 1978) The Courage to Fail: Organ Transplantation and Hemodialysis . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
12.
Franzosi R. ( 1998) Narrative analysis, or Why (and how) sociologists should be interested in narrative. Annual Review of Sociology24: 517-554.
13.
Giddens A. ( 1992) The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
14.
Goffman E. ( 1983) The interaction order. American Sociological Review48(1): 1-17.
15.
Hajer MA ( 1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
Healy K. ( 2004) Altruism as an organizational problem: The case of organ procurement. American Sociological Review69(3): 387-404.
17.
Heim M. ( 1992) The erotic ontology of cyberspace. In: Benedict M (ed.) Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge: MIT Press, 70-87.
18.
Illouz E. ( 1999) That shadowy realm of the interior: Oprah Winfrey and Hamlet’s glass. International Journal of Cultural Studies2(1): 109-131.
19.
Kaufman S., Russ AJ, and Shim JK ( 2006) Aged bodies and kinship matters. American Ethnologist33(1): 81-99.
20.
Land H., Hudson S. ( 2002) HIV serostatus and factors related to physical and mental well-being in Latina family AIDS caregivers. Social Science & Medicine54(1): 147-159.
21.
LeBlanc AJ, Wardlaw LA ( 1999) Health-related worry among informal aids caregivers. health:3(4): 421-449.
22.
Lee H. ( 2005) Behavioral strategies for dealing with flaming in on-line forum. Sociological Quarterly46(2): 385-403.
23.
Leonard L., Ellen JM ( 2008) ‘The story of my life’: AIDS and ‘autobiographical occasions’. Qualitative Sociology31(1): 37-56.
24.
McKie L., Gregory S., and Bowlby S. ( 2002) Shadow times: The temporal and spatial frameworks and experiences of caring and working. Sociology36(4): 897-924.
25.
Mauss M. ( 1990 [1954]) The Gift: The Forms and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Ed. Douglas M (1990). London: Routledge.
26.
Orgad S. ( 2007) The Internet as a moral space: The legacy of Roger Silverstone . New Media & Society9(1): 33-41.
27.
Papilloud C. ( 2004) Three conditions of human relations. Philosophy & Social Criticism30(4): 431-444.
28.
Perlow LA ( 1999) The time famine: Toward a sociology of work time. Administrative Science Quarterly44(1): 57-81.
29.
Pirani BM, Varga I. ( 2005) Introduction: The ethics of complexity. Current Sociology53(2): 187-206.
30.
Rhodes T., Cusick L. ( 2000) Love and intimacy in relationship risk management: HIV positive people and their sexual partners. Sociology of Health and Illness22(1): 1-26.
31.
Rier D. ( 2007) HIV/AIDS Internet support groups as moral agents: The ethical dynamics of HIV status disclosure. Sociology of Health and Illness29(7): 1043-1058.
32.
Robinson KM ( 2001) Unsolicited narratives from the Internet: A rich source of qualitative data. Qualitative Health Research11(5): 706-714.
33.
Roseneil S., Budgeon S. ( 2004) Cultures of intimacy and care beyond the family: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century. Current Sociology52(2): 135-159.
34.
Scheper-Hughes N. ( 2001) Commodity fetishism in organs trafficking. Body and Society7(2-3): 31-62.
35.
Scheper-Hughes N. ( 2007) The tyranny of the gift: Sacrificial violence in living donor transplants. American Journal of Transplant7(3): 507-511.
36.
Seale C. ( 2002) Cancer heroics: A study of news reports with particular reference to gender. Sociology36(1): 107-126.
37.
Shaw R. ( 2003) Theorizing breastfeeding: Body ethics, maternal generosity and the gift relation. Body and Society9(2): 55-73.
38.
Shaw R. ( 2008) Rethinking reproductive gifts as body projects. Sociology42(1): 11-28.
39.
Silverstone R. ( 2003) Proper distance: Towards an ethics for cyberspace. In: Liestol G, Morrison A, and Rasmussen T (eds) Digital Media Revisited. Cambridge: MIT Press, 469-491.
40.
Sixsmith J., Murray CD ( 2001) Ethical issues in the documentary data analysis of Internet posts and archives. Qualitative Health Research11(3): 424-432.
41.
Slater DR ( 2002) Making things real: Ethics and order on the Internet. Theory, Culture and Society19(5/6): 227-245.
42.
Snow DA, Anderson L. ( 1987) Identity work among the homeless: The verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography26(2): 117-146.
43.
Titmuss R. ( 1970) The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy . London: George Allen & Unwin .
44.
Turner BS ( 2002) Cosmopolitan virtue, globalization and patriotism. Theory , Culture and Society19(1-2): 45-63.
45.
Wight RG, Aneshensel CS, Murphy DA, Miller-Martinez D., and Beals KP ( 2006) Perceived HIV stigma in AIDS caregiving dyads. Social Science & Medicine62(2): 444-456.
46.
Wilder TL ( 2000) Caring for the Caregiver. AIDS Survival Project - A Coalition of People Affected by HIV. Available at: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/10500/547/1/dissertation.pdf .
47.
Williams PJ, Copes H. ( 2005) ‘How edge are you?’: Constructing authentic identities and subcultural boundaries in a straight edge Internet forum. Symbolic Interaction28(1): 67-89.
48.
Wood K., Lambert H. ( 2008) Coded talk, scripted omissions: The micropolitics of AIDS talk in an affected community in South Africa. Medical Anthropology Quarterly22(3): 213-233.
