Deyana Atanasova

School: DePaul University

Major: Economics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-4crp-xf47

Biography:

Deyana is a recent graduate of DePaul University, finishing her undergraduate studies in Economics and Professional Writing. During her undergraduate career, she has been a regular writer and collaborator in several DePaul publications, worked as a peer writing tutor at the University Writing Center, and also contributed to an institutional ethnography research project. Since graduating, she hopes to explore a non-academic setting before pursuing an MA/MS. Aside from academics and professional goals, she enjoys curating Spotify playlists, logging films on Letterboxd, and handwriting letters.

Venmo: The Fine Line Between Economic and Social Capital

Abstract

This thesis explores the blurring lines between economic and social capital by scaffolding off of interdisciplinary scholarship to construct a quantitative and qualitative case study analysis of tweets from the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement in relation to Venmo. Economic capital is defined outside a standard economic and financial lens to accommodate individual standpoint(s), attempting to mold the term to more accurately relate to social justice. Scholarship related to consumer payment choice, economic choice and identity, digital payment platforms, Venmo, discourse communities, and more is reviewed, situating this work in the general field of digital economic and consumer studies through the lens of social justice. As a chosen “vehicle” site of study, Venmo’s social features may deem it a useful tool in supporting social, political, and economic movements by way of economic and social exchange, ultimately drawing a virtual connection between varying affinity spaces with shared causes and blending lines between economic and social capital. After confirming that Venmo had a prevalent presence during the 2020 BLM movement, research questions investigated in the data methodology include: (1) what discourse communities or affinity spaces arise in Twitter conversations regarding both BLM and Venmo, and (2) how does this relate to the definitions offered of economic and social capital? The data methodology section explores the three-fold method of data collection and analysis through Google Trends, simple and advanced Google searches, and a case study analysis of tweets through NVivo, a qualitative analysis software. Through the NVivo analysis of 92 tweets containing the search terms “Venmo” and “#BlackLivesMatter,” 21 cities were recognized, 44 unique hashtags were referenced, and over a dozen affinity spaces were identified which exemplified social capital as a central focus alongside the exchange of economic capital.

What is your research topic, in a nutshell?

My research topic is an interdisciplinary exploration into the relatively recent phenomenon of the intersection of financial and social interactions through digital payment platforms such as Venmo, particularly in a social justice context. Aside from a literature review of relevant topics, the body of the work is composed of a quantitative (Google Trends and searches) and qualitative (NVivo) analysis of search terms and tweets that focus on Venmo and the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. Through the reworked and borrowed terms of economic capital, social capital, and affinity spaces, this work essentially acknowledges Venmo’s presence throughout the movement along with the niche communities that supported it not just financially but through other means as well, hence the social capital.

How did you come to your research topic?

This research topic idea first came to me in March 2020 after reading an article in The New York Times called “Their Campaign Jobs Just Dried Up. And on Venmo, the Drinks Are Flowing.” I knew from then that I wanted to unpack Venmo, and after witnessing and participating in the virtual efforts of Venmo exchanges during the 2020 BLM movement, I thought that this too deserved to be unpacked (i.e. individuals taking matters into their own hands by advocating for social, political, and economic justice through varying platforms). What started as curiosity about the strange pseudo-social nature of digital payment apps like Venmo turned more into a socio-politico-economic case study that just scratches the surface of what happened and what is still happening.

Where do you see the future direction of this work leading (how might future researchers build on your work or what is left to discover in this field)?

One of the limitations of this study was that it did not use Venmo or Twitter APIs as a larger repository of data for several reasons, and yet I think the small sample in the case study made more sense in the end and helped paint a clearer picture of stories instead of relying only on statistics and correlations. Some studies, including ones by Murthy et al. (2020) that actually use large Venmo transaction data sets, factor in questions of social justice through the use of skin tone modified emojis, for example. Thus, this work can take many, many different directions, and just one example is Raven Rainey’s work “Why Now: Pandemic, Protests, and Participation” which was also presented at 2021 CAURS. The more distance there is between past social justice events and the present, the more the projects about them will become archival and historical. The time is now. Academia is not free from systemic racism, and even just from the small sample of 92 tweets that I analyzed, the educational community was referenced multiple times. I would be humbled if this work is seen as far from perfect, far from over, and rather seen as another beginning effort of intertwining social justice studies in other fields.

Where are you heading to after graduation?

Aside from taking a bit of a pandemic wall mental health break, I hope to jump out of my comfort zone of academia into a full-time position before pursuing an MA/MS. Wherever I go, though, I’ll certainly continue writing in whatever shape or form.