Eve Upton-Clark is a freelance features writer and copywriter from London, based in Amsterdam, covering culture and society. Her work has been published globally in publications including Business Insider, i-D, Vice, Dazed, Refinery 29 and more.

In a hyper-connected world, it feels like everything previously ‘insider’ is more available than ever: from behind-the-scenes access to the lives of public figures to travel experiences immersing people into worlds previously deemed unattainable. But while people embrace this community-based inclusivity and unprecedented access to their icons, they still yearn for touches of exclusivity to define their status.

As the age-old understanding of exclusivity is eroded, people are redefining status for themselves using a broad range of factors beyond solely economic ones. This new iteration of status is often based around increasingly niche and local signifiers – from luxury dupes to the rise of members clubs and closed-community spaces based on shared interests. Status is becoming a mode of belonging and connection with like-minded people.

People are erecting walls of their exclusive communities, relying on more subtle markers of identity. This is apparent with middle-class people fetishising working-class aesthetics, athletes turning to niche sports like padel, and social media groups organising around niche interests – spawning companies. As status-defined micro-trends on social media accelerate, brands face a challenge to keep up. If previously certain legacy items were automatically associated with exclusivity, now people are much more trusting of the UGC-defined vision of what status means. More than ever, speed, knowledge, inventiveness, and being plugged into the community determine what – and who – is in.

Insider Status

From decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs)  run on Discord to city-wide mutual aid groups, people are finding safety and optimism in numbers. For growing numbers of people, collective action is emerging as the only viable solution to compounding crises and deepening alienation.

World Builders

Paolo Gerbaudo is an Italian sociologist and political theorist based at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at Complutense University in Madrid, where he’s a senior researcher. He was previously the director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London. He’s the author of three books on social movements, politics, and populism: 

. He regularly writes for various news media, including 

United Kingdom

Community and grassroots

Fashion and Style

Home and Relationships

Social networking

Interview with Paolo Gerbaudo conducted by the author

Building Social Cohesion in the UK

World Economic Forum

The National Lottery Community Fund

The Face

Financial Times

The Guardian

Independent

The Wall Street Journal

Canvas8

The Standard

Huck

Verywell Mind

Marketing Dive

The Instagram page Real Housewives of Clapton serves as both a satirical commentary and a cultural barometer of the UK’s creative class. In a time where social cohesion is strained, and markers of adulthood are shifting, how can hyper-localised meme pages help build a sense of community?