Digital Group Solidarity: Rethinking the Typology of Beckert's Moral Embeddedness in the Contemporary Market Arena

This study explores digital group solidarity as a new typology in the theory of moral embeddedness by Beckert (2005). Digital group solidarity is understood as a form of group solidarity that is constructed through digital interactions in a market arena. This study is different from that of Scott (2020) which more focuses on censorship policies on homosexual movies. It is also in contrast with a study by Nurmajesty et al. (2022) which is in reference to Beckert (2009) regarding the mechanism of commodity valuation of the jamu (Indonesian herbal medicine) market in Indonesia based on physical and symbolic values. The description of the characteristics of moral embeddedness, particularly group solidarity exchange, in the digital realm of the homosexual movie industry is mapped through TNA and SNA using the Netlytic and Gephi software and supported by polls via Twitter and observations in several chat groups of homosexual movie lovers. Referring to the conducted survey, 71.85% of consumers of homosexual movies use Twitter to communicate with each other instead of chat groups and offline meetings. Beckert (2005) argues that the formation of group solidarity is primordial based, while this study discovers that digital group solidarity is relatively unrelated to primordial ties. In contrast to Beckert (2005) who observes group solidarity from only one side of the market (either producers or consumers), this study reveals that digital group solidarity can occur in both arenas and places more emphasis on the preference side. Digital group solidarity is also revealed as a slice of cooperation and group solidarity in Beckert (2005), since both ego and alter ego in digital group solidarity tend to be observed as benefits.