Digital passages. Moroccan-Dutch youths performing diaspora, gender and youth cultural identities across digital space

Digital Passages considers how the relations between gender, diaspora and youth culture are digitally articulated by Moroccan-Dutch youths between the age of 12 and 18 years old. Combining new media, gender and postcolonial theory, a transdisciplinary analysis is carried out of a young ethnic-minority population whose contribution to digital culture was undertheorized. In particular I explored how Moroccan-Dutch youths appropriate digital spaces in order to convey their belongings across multiple axes of identification such as gender, sexuality, diaspora, religion and youth-culture. The study... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Leurs, K.H.A.
Dokumenttyp: Dissertation
Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
Verlag/Hrsg.: Utrecht University
Schlagwörter: Specialized histories (international relations / law) / Literary theory / analysis and criticism / Culturele activiteiten / Overig maatschappelijk onderzoek
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27455078
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/242468

Digital Passages considers how the relations between gender, diaspora and youth culture are digitally articulated by Moroccan-Dutch youths between the age of 12 and 18 years old. Combining new media, gender and postcolonial theory, a transdisciplinary analysis is carried out of a young ethnic-minority population whose contribution to digital culture was undertheorized. In particular I explored how Moroccan-Dutch youths appropriate digital spaces in order to convey their belongings across multiple axes of identification such as gender, sexuality, diaspora, religion and youth-culture. The study was conducted in the context of Wired Up, a research project funded by a Utrecht University High Potential grant, bringing together humanities and social science scholars to analyze digital media use among migrant youths. Together with other Wired Up researchers, a large-scale survey was developed. 1408 students in seven secondary schools completed this survey. Furthermore, in-depth interviews were carried out with a group of 43 Moroccan-Dutch youths, 21 girls and 22 boys, between the age of 12 and 18 years old. Online, narratives were gathered through participant observation. From the survey I learned that Moroccan-Dutch youths consider online discussion forums, instant messaging (IM), online social networking sites (SNSs) and video sharing platforms most important. These four types of digital space were analyzed on a case-study basis. Survey data showed computer ownership and Internet access is widespread among Moroccan-Dutch youths, however I revealed that digital divides go beyond ownership and access. Exploring how offline exclusionary mechanisms travel online and establish new digital divides, I unraveled how technological decisions and mainstream user preferences contribute to medium-specific spatial hierarchies. The focus was in fact on the ways in which hierarchies are subverted from below and how the medium-specificity of each of the four applications studied informs these processes differently. An inventory was ...