Rites of Passage and Configurations of Proper Sociality

This article examines the implications of digitalisation for the already existing forms of sociality. To do that, we turn to an ethnographic study we conducted remotely in the spring of 2020, which focuses on the online doctoral defences arranged in Finland during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Drawing on participant observation and interviews, we argue that the mechanisms for evaluating online defences are the same ones that govern defences in the offline sphere. They consist of discursive and material practices through which what is considered to be a proper doctoral defence as an academic rite of passage takes shape. We advocate for paying attention to the valuing arrangements of social relations exposed by the move from offline to online across various scales and spheres of social life.