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Language and Dialogue: Online-First Articles

Experto crede

Patient knowledge formation in health communities on Facebook

| Jagiellonian University | University of Pardubice

The article explains the processes involved in knowledge sharing and support giving in an open FB forum dedicated to endometriosis. It builds on the existing understanding of experiential knowledge, as well as adopts Jovchelovitch’s (2007) perspective on knowledge diversity and representation which views knowledge construction as an intersubjective process. The analysis looks at the what, the who, and the how of the community in question, focusing in particular on three areas: identity work (self- and other-categorisation); perspective sharing and recognition by “significant others”; and epistemic self-other positioning. The analysis determines the most common strategies of categorisation, identifies ways of constructing shared understanding, as well as reveals that the participants’ personal truths are based primarily on their embodied experience and hearsay.

Keywords: community of practice, intersubjectivity, online forum, patient knowledge, stance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1What is patient knowledge?
    • 2.2(Virtual) communities of practice and health communication
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Patient knowledge formation in an open FB forum dedicated to endometriosis
    • 4.1 Dawaj wojowniczko (C’mon warrior): Self- and other-categorisation
    • 4.2 Ja też (Me too): Perspective sharing and recognition by “significant others”
    • 4.3 A mówili… (And they would say…): Epistemic self-other positioning
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 21 June 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00172.szc
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