Banal nationalism in virtual reality: An ethnographic study of the (re)production of digital national identities in social VR based on the case of Polish users

The emergence of each new digital medium prompts debates about its potential to foster cosmopolitanism or reinforce new forms of nationalism. To date, social virtual reality (VR) platforms have often been portrayed through a cosmopolitan lens. This article challenges that view by demonstrating how banal nationalism is (re)produced within social VR, drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research conducted among Polish users. Polish users, navigating power inequalities in access to “global communities” in VR, (re)produce digital versions of the national homeland and its landscape, avatars of the national self, and the category of the national Other. These practices demonstrate that shared digital cultural texts – such as national games, memes, and applications – can be incorporated within nationalist discourse, giving rise to new, heterogeneous forms of national identity. Despite social VR enabling global interactions, user encounters are often framed as exchanges between individuals of distinct nationalities, which generate power inequalities among users, underscoring the need to integrate the national dimension into future VR studies.