This article is based on research among a group of Muslim youth living in the west of Ireland as part of a study on “social belonging” and identity. One part of the research involved designing a youth centered, participatory research method, in the form of a blog site, to investigate what young people say and do when they are asked to talk about themselves and their relationships, with minimal researcher involvement. Participants were presented with a “blank virtual canvas” where they determined what became discussed. Twenty-two teenaged Muslims—comprising close friends as well as fellow students of the same school and living in the same West of Ireland town—contributed to a time limited, closed blog site over a four month period. The blog site offers interesting snippets of Muslim identification, and how they choose to present themselves to others. In the process of contributing to this exercise, we can also observe subtle means through which inclusion and exclusion co-exist online, refracting young people’s offline worlds. The blog affords an opportunity to consciously “do” friendship by presenting to each other images, symbols and statements of friendship that invoke both cohesion and closure. The research unravels certain gendered patterns in online performances. In demonstrating this evidence, we argue that the study of online interactions of youth can provide an alternative window in exploring relationships, identification and social positioning.
Blog site; online friendships; Muslim youth; gender; identity performance; participatory research
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…