@article {1302,
	title = {Transnational immanence: the autopoietic co-constitution of a Chinese spiritual organization through mediated communication},
	journal = {Information, Communication \& Society},
	volume = {Online},
	year = {2013},
	abstract = {Information and communication technologies are often cited as one major source, if not the causal vector, for the rising intensity of transnational practices. Yet, extant literature has not examined critically how digital media appropriation affects the constitution of transnational organizations, particularly Chinese spiritual ones. To address the lack of theoretically grounded, empirical research on this question, this study investigates how the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (Tzu Chi), one of the largest Taiwan-based civil and spiritual nonprofit organizations among the Chinese diaspora, is co-constituted by various social actors as an operationally closed system through their mediated communication. Based on an innovative theoretical framework that combines Maturana and Varela{\textquoteright}s notion of {\textquoteleft}autopoiesis{\textquoteright} with Cooren{\textquoteright}s ideas of {\textquoteleft}incarnation{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}presentification{\textquoteright}, we provide a rich analysis of Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s co-constitution through organizational leaders{\textquoteright} appropriation of digital and social media, as well as through mediated interactions between Tzu Chi{\textquoteright}s internal and external stakeholders. In so doing, our research expands upon the catalogue of common economic and relational behaviors by overseas Chinese, advances our understanding of Chinese spiritual organizing, and reveals the contingent role of digital and social media in engendering transnational spiritual ties to accomplish global humanitarian work.},
	keywords = {Asia, Authority, autopoiesis, Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, communicative constitution of organizations, information and communication technologies, nonprofit, social media, Taiwan, transnationalism},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2013.833277$\#$.Ulm51VCsim5},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Jennie M. Hwang and Boris H.J.M. Brummansb}
}
@article {1243,
	title = {Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC : the Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities},
	journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {02.1},
	year = {2006},
	chapter = {41},
	abstract = {Michael Rudolph{\textquoteright}s article Nativism, Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC: The Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities deals with rituals presented on Taiwanese Websites in the context of identity construction. Since the mid-nineties, long abandoned and very un-Chinese ritual practices suddenly seemed to become popular again in China{\textquoteright}s runaway-province Taiwan: in spite of the fact that most of the island{\textquoteright}s 2\% of indigenous population had been Christianized for half a century, intellectual elites of different aboriginal groups now referred to ancestor-gods, tattooing and even headhunting again as essential parts of their own traditional repertoire, often making abundant use of the Internet in order to propagate these convictions to a broader Chinese speaking public. This contribution not only scrutinises the political context that made such a development possible, but also assesses this practice in terms of the identity construction of the specific ethnic groups.},
	keywords = {aboriginal groups, Digital Religion, Ethnic, identity, Indigenous Religions, internet, online communication, religion online, Ritual, Taiwan},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/375/351},
	author = {Michael Rudolph}
}
