Survival, companionship, and visibility with platforms: (Re)producing solidarity in Hong Kong queer spaces

This paper contributes to digital queer studies in Asia by addressing two key problematics in the literature on queer space, platform studies, and solidarity economy. First, it draws on feminist and queer theories to propose examining social reproductive work with digital platforms as a generative way to understand how these platforms (re)construct and sustain queer space. Second, it acknowledges the diverse goals and strategies of platformised solidarity economies in different socio-political contexts shaped by intersectional oppressions. Through an ethnographic study of two queer spaces in Hong Kong after the 2019‒2020 anti-extradition protests, the paper identifies material, affective, and cultural forms of social reproductive work with digital platforms that maintain and reconfigure queer space as solidarity economic praxis. These spaces navigate constraints posed by algorithmic mediation, patriarchal culture, and authoritarianism, revealing both the limitations and creative potential of platform-dependent solidarity economies. Moving beyond debates on co-optation by platform capitalism, this paper explores how situated practices of queer resistance from below emerge around digital platforms, configuring platformised solidarity economies as context-specific struggles against intersecting oppressive forces.