Wednesday 26 May 2021 | 12:00 – 14:00 CEST
DigiGen’s focus on civic participation assesses the role of digital transformations in young people’s online political behaviour. The project assesses their online political behaviour accounting for socio-economic and gender considerations and their motivations for using digital content and devices to express political opinions and engage in political actions.
During this webinar, we will give you an insight into the work of the DigiGen researchers and focus on the first phase results from netnography (multimodal critical online content analysis, observation, and online interviews with activists) involving six mini-cases studies in the three participating countries: Greece, Estonia and the UK.
For Greece we analyse primary data mobilising for refugees, antifascist and Black Lives Matter (BLM), against gender-based violence, and anti-homophobia. For Estonia, we discuss primary data of LGBTQ and BLM youth activism in Estonia. For the UK, we share findings from analysis of primary data for anti-racist civic participation BLM UK and Extinction Rebellion (XR and XR Youth).
During the webinar, we will present the selected case studies and discuss the contexts, ethics and research techniques used in our project. Our panelists will convey their experiences with working with young people active in social and environmental justice movements, and discuss their findings with relevant experts in the field.
This webinar will be relevant to academics and students who are researching young people’s civic participation and online political behaviour and could be of interest to policy makers and practitioners.
Working language: English
The webinar took place on 26 May 2021. You can (re)watch the webinar our YouTube channel.
Presentations:
Speakers
Athina Karatzogianni, Professor in Media and Communication, University of Leicester, UK
Athina leads DigiGen’s work on civic participation. She cannot make her mind up whether she is more interested in the empirical research or the theoretical problems emerging from ICT use by social movements, protest, and insurgency groups.
Katrin Tiidenberg, Professor of Participatory Culture at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication Institute of Tallinn University in Estonia
Katrin Tiidenberg is the author of multiple books on social media. Her research interests include social media, sexual practices, visual culture, participatory practices, norms and digital research methods and ethics.
Dimitris Parsanoglou, Senior Researcher, Department of Social Policy, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences; Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, Greece
Dimitris Parsanoglou holds a DEA and a PhD in Sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has participated in several national and European research projects and has extensively published on history and sociology of migration, on employment, youth, urban space and gender.
Airi-Alina Allaste, Professor TLU School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallin University, Estonia
Airi-Alina Allaste, professor at Tallinn University, Estonia, focuses her research, publications, and teaching on youth-related topics, qualitative methods, and the analyses of meanings that people attribute to their lives. She has been a coordinator of many projects on youth cultures, lifestyles and participation and edited books/special issues on these topics. She is vice-president of the research committee of the Sociology of Youth, International Sociological Association.
Dr. Keir Milburn, author of Generation Left
Dr. Keir Milburn works on municipalism, economic democracy and political economy for the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. His latest book, Generation Left, published by Polity, explains why young people are moving to the left while older people are tending towards the right. He is also a co-host of the #ACFM podcast on Novara Media.
Dr. Kjerstin Thorson, Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising & Public Relations and the School of Journalism, Michigan State University
Dr. Kjerstin Thorson’s research explores how social media platforms are reshaping the visibility of news and politics and the democratic consequences of information inequality, especially among youth and young adults. Her work appears in leading academic journals, including Information, Communication & Society, New Media & Society, and Communication Theory.
Pantelis Vatikiotis, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, Media and Culture, at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Pantelis Vatikiotis’s research interests include: sociology of media, digital journalism, social media, alternative media practices, social movements and activism, media and democracy. His publications include several book chapters and journal articles in international academic publications.
Chair: Diane Levine, Deputy Director of the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Leicester, UK
Di is Deputy Director of the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies, following a career as a teacher, programme manager and as a senior manager in civil/public service. Di has a particular interest in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the role technology can (and cannot) play in helping children and adolescents engage in the worlds around them, and in developing their resilience pathways.