Andrea Markl, Belinda Mahlknecht and Tabea Bork-Hüffer- Understanding young people’s negotiations of difference in entangled online-offline spaces from a subjective-empirical perspective
Our presentation provides first insights into the FWF-funded project beYOND (Young People Negotiating Difference in cON/FFlating spaces, 2021-2025), which is being carried out in three European countries (Austria, Germany, Spain) in rural and peripheral regions with young people before, during and after leaving school. Drawing on insights from children’s and young people’s geographies, digital geographies, the geography of difference and related interdisciplinary research on identity negotiation, we discuss how young people’s negotiations of difference and experiences of different forms of violence unfold in entangled online-offline, i.e., cON/FFlating spaces.
Contrary to the dominance of quantitative research on sexual, physical and psychological violence, including (cyber-)bullying, inclusion and exclusion, we use a qualitative, youth-centred, multi-method and mobile in-situ research design with a longitudinal component. Adopting an intersectional perspective, we therefore analyse and discuss experiences our participants shared in their own words in 380 written narratives, 20 semi-narrative interviews and 15 Mobile-Messenger-Dossiers (MMDs), the latter constituting the long-term component of our study which will continue until January 2024. The MMD-method, developed by the beYOND-team, allows participants to remotely interchange insights into their everyday, dynamic and fluid identity negotiations with the researchers while they unfold in time and space.
Digital media are highly integrated into young people’s everyday practices and routines of identity negotiation. On the one hand, they provide and create supportive and safe spaces for young people (also with multiple identities) and thus have the potential to foster identity development and self-expression. On the other hand, our findings show that they fail to challenge binary identity containers, open discourses, and blur boundaries resulting in (re-)producing deeply ingrained (heteronormative) structures. We take a critical perspective to highlight the ambivalences of socio-material-technological spaces that offer opportunities, but also have the potential to promote and normalise sexual, physical, and psychological violence among young people.
Santosh Kumar Patra- Non-presence and distanced proximity: a study of the mediatization of space and user experience of dating sites
Mastering presence to identifying non-presence is the backbone of driving human spatial and temporal relationships through digital media technologies, as Hussle would prove that absence occurs with the presence of an object, the spatiality of Saussure and indicates non-presence as the condition of possibility (Schutz, 2004, Husserl, 1928). Husserl’s notion of a transcendent spatial thing includes absence and non-presence. Hussle would present his reaction to Derrida’s first ‘deconstruction phase on transcendent spatiality as the hierarchy of objectivity and subjectivity (Capto, 1997, Harris, 1987). With the epistemological approach of objectivity, subjectivity and non-presence than absence, this paper codifies the knowledge of the motive behind human interaction through dating sites in India. Dating sites not only break the silence of individuals’ objective presence to match likeminded people for possible relationships but also ensure a physical non-presence for connecting with multiple people, self-expression and exploring the possibilities of a right match without much social baggage. Dating sites play a vital role as mediated technological manifestations and become the beacons of hope for people looking for an emotional gateway through digital media technologies without bearing physical and social burdens. However, the challenge remains the use of digital media technologies with respect to the authenticity of identity and malicious intent powered by the physical non-traceability of the character, creating the vulnerability of the space and character. To understand the theoretical duality of physical presence and objective reality vs virtual non-presence and subjective reality, the paper explores the construction of mediatization of space and the possibility of emotional escapism through the users of dating sites in India.
Sunitha Don Bosco- Social media narratives, social acceptance and discriminated communities
Can geographically excluded & socially discriminated communities gain social acceptance through their narratives in social media?.The traditional fishing communities of Tamil nadu, in Southern India due to their habitation near coastal zones have remained in isolation for centuries. This geographical & social isolation due to economicactivity of the community, and lack of representation in the media has lead to discrimination of this community. The real voice of these people is never heard, and the stereotyping of the community as dissidents has been the norm for narratives in the
traditional media. Coastal communities especially are increasingly becoming vulnerable to changing climate. In view of the vulnerabilities faced by the coastal communities, the losses faced by them are often carried as anti-establishment stories with political colouring and the fishing communities are framed as dissenters. The media discoursesof the community is on deficits faced by the community, failing to present stories on the wealth of knowledge the sea faring people have on marine life and ecosystem. The digital media & convergence, has enabled fishers to have a voice, and present their
stories to people. Digital Media and convergence has broken the institutional barriers in communication and information dissemination. This paper presents as case study using the positive deviance framework the “social media” influencers and storytellers from the fishing communities in Tamil Nadu who were able to legitimise their social status through their narratives, thus eliminating the social isolation and conflicts arising out of the prejudice and stigma associated with the fishing community.
Sara Dahlman- Artificial intelligence in healthcare : the co-constitutive entanglement of hype and hope
The sociology of emotion sees hope as the emotion of future possibility, feelings of limited agency and uncertain external circumstances in an unsatisfactory present, relating to past experiences of failed hopes (Lazarus, 1999; McGeer, 2004; Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2010; Wettergren, forthcoming). As artificial intelligence (AI) has entered the field of health care, proponents have hopefully proclaimed that AI will transform health care, and ultimately, make the world a healthier place (Forbes, 2022). Academic debates on AI in health care often positions hope and hype, defined as promoting (a product or idea) intensively, often exaggerating its benefits (Oxford, n.d.), as opposing potential outcomes (Dunmonn, 2021; Ilyas, 2022; Matheny et al, 2019; Mathew et al, 2021; Mazzanti et al. 2018; Rockall 2020). That is, AI in healthcare either carry a potential hope or an empty promise of a hype. While these debates are mainly situated in the field of medical studies, it has inspired us to go into depth with this proposed dichotomy and understand how hype relates to hope, and hope relates to hype. Rather than seeing the two as opposites, we examine them as interlinked and entangled
by the circulation of affect (Ahmed, 2004). In this paper we want to show how certain verbalizations of AI in health care becomes objects of emotion (Ahmed, 2013) that initiate affects and how these affects create future expectations of hype and hope. Empirically, we work with a 10-year (2011-2021) dataset (n= 34,688) of Danish news media coverage of algorithmic technologies. Using data sprint methodology (Munk et al., 2023, we track the
development of public concerns and enthusiasm in the coverage of emerging algorithmic health technologies. Taking advantage of the longitudinal data set, we demonstrate how hope and hype are co-constitutive and map their interrelatedness over time.