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  • Koen Leurs - Online Hush Harbors and Countering Publics

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    Koen Leurs
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    Community and voice: Dutch-Moroccan youth using online discussion boards Youth born in the Netherlands from parents who migrated from Morocco experience various junctions in their everyday, transitional journeys of adolescence and diaspora. “Symbolical grammars of difference” (Wekker, 2009, p. 153) such as age, generation, class, education, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ‘race’, religion and nationality become invoked. By bringing into creative collision feminist technoscience, postcolonial theory, intersectional thinking and new media studies I interpret how Dutch-Moroccan youth (re)mediate their everyday identifications using Internet applications. In the Netherlands, discussion sites are popular among Dutch-Moroccan youth (Boumans, 2002; Brouwer, 2005 & 2006; Brouwer & Wyma, 2006; Borghuis et al., 2010; Van Stekelenburg et al., 2011). The relative anonymity of online discussion sites has attracted a large number of youth to articulate their position dialogically, using their own terms and making pleas for their own needs. Intersecting ‘glocal’ concerns of identity, adolescence, religiosity, sexuality, racism, radicalization, multiculturalism and other current affairs, are often at the centre of discussions. In mainstream Dutch society, voices of Dutch-Moroccan youth are often either ignored, othered and/or commodified. I explore how online discussion forums are employed on a day to day basis as a “hush harbor” (Byrne, 2008) (noot ) where marginalized positions can be re-articulated. I zoom in on the (re)construction of Dutch-Moroccan communities online, and the issue of voice. I will assess to what extent Dutch-Moroccan youth use discussion sites to assert their voice in a (counter) public sphere, and make visible their position in larger debates. But I also want to remain attentive to the structuring principles at work (commercial incentives, moderation, and reification of gender, ethnic and religious roles). Findings from a survey we have conducted in the Netherlands among over 350 Dutch-Moroccan youth are triangulated with insights gained from in-depth interviews and excerpts taken from online discussion boards.

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    Community and voice: Dutch-Moroccan youth using online discussion boards Youth born in the Netherlands from parents who migrated from Morocco experience various junctions in their everyday, transitional journeys of adolescence and diaspora. “Symbolical grammars of difference” (Wekker, 2009, p. 153) such as age, generation, class, education, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ‘race’, religion and nationality become invoked. By bringing into creative collision feminist technoscience, postcolonial theory, intersectional thinking and new media studies I interpret how Dutch-Moroccan youth (re)mediate their everyday identifications using Internet applications. In the Netherlands, discussion sites are popular among Dutch-Moroccan youth (Boumans, 2002; Brouwer, 2005 & 2006; Brouwer & Wyma, 2006; Borghuis et al., 2010; Van Stekelenburg et al., 2011). The relative anonymity of online discussion sites has attracted a large number of youth to articulate their position dialogically, using their own terms and making pleas for their own needs. Intersecting ‘glocal’ concerns of identity, adolescence, religiosity, sexuality, racism, radicalization, multiculturalism and other current affairs, are often at the centre of discussions. In mainstream Dutch society, voices of Dutch-Moroccan youth are often either ignored, othered and/or commodified. I explore how online discussion forums are employed on a day to day basis as a “hush harbor” (Byrne, 2008) (noot ) where marginalized positions can be re-articulated. I zoom in on the (re)construction of Dutch-Moroccan communities online, and the issue of voice. I will assess to what extent Dutch-Moroccan youth use discussion sites to assert their voice in a (counter) public sphere, and make visible their position in larger debates. But I also want to remain attentive to the structuring principles at work (commercial incentives, moderation, and reification of gender, ethnic and religious roles). Findings from a survey we have conducted in the Netherlands among over 350 Dutch-Moroccan youth are triangulated with insights gained from in-depth interviews and excerpts taken from online discussion boards.

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    Koen Leurs - Online Hush Harbors and Countering Publics

    Uploaded by

    Koen Leurs
    Community and voice: Dutch-Moroccan youth using online discussion boards Youth born in the Netherlands from parents who migrated from Morocco experience various junctions in their everyday, transitional journeys of adolescence and diaspora. “Symbolical grammars of difference” (Wekker, 2009, p. 153) such as age, generation, class, education, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ‘race’, religion and nationality become invoked. By bringing into creative collision feminist technoscience, postcolonial theory, intersectional thinking and new media studies I interpret how Dutch-Moroccan youth (re)mediate their everyday identifications using Internet applications. In the Netherlands, discussion sites are popular among Dutch-Moroccan youth (Boumans, 2002; Brouwer, 2005 & 2006; Brouwer & Wyma, 2006; Borghuis et al., 2010; Van Stekelenburg et al., 2011). The relative anonymity of online discussion sites has attracted a large number of youth to articulate their position dialogically, using their own terms and making pleas for their own needs. Intersecting ‘glocal’ concerns of identity, adolescence, religiosity, sexuality, racism, radicalization, multiculturalism and other current affairs, are often at the centre of discussions. In mainstream Dutch society, voices of Dutch-Moroccan youth are often either ignored, othered and/or commodified. I explore how online discussion forums are employed on a day to day basis as a “hush harbor” (Byrne, 2008) (noot ) where marginalized positions can be re-articulated. I zoom in on the (re)construction of Dutch-Moroccan communities online, and the issue of voice. I will assess to what extent Dutch-Moroccan youth use discussion sites to assert their voice in a (counter) public sphere, and make visible their position in larger debates. But I also want to remain attentive to the structuring principles at work (commercial incentives, moderation, and reification of gender, ethnic and religious roles). Findings from a survey we have conducted in the Netherlands among over 350 Dutch-Moroccan youth are triangulated with insights gained from in-depth interviews and excerpts taken from online discussion boards.

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    of 6

    1 NOV National research day / 18.02.

    2011
    Online hush harbors and
    countering publics:
    Dutch-Moroccan youth
    engaging with online
    discussion boards
    Koen Leurs – Utrecht University
    www.uu.nl/wiredup /
    www.koenleurs.net
    2 Dissertation
    • How do young Dutch-Moroccans use
    digital applications as alternative
    interactive spaces between cultures of
    origin, diasporas, youth cultures and that
    of immigration?
    • Intersectional approach:
    how are issues of identity, gender, religion
    and ethnicity negotiated?
    • Focus here: online discussion boards
    3 Methodology
    • Large scale survey:
    – 1408 students secondary education (12-18 years)
    – Including 348 Dutch-Moroccan students

    • In-depth interviews:
    – 43 young Dutch-Moroccans (21 female, 22 male)
    – 17 girls & 5 boys were active forum users
    4 Establishing a community
    • Survey findings:
    Young Dutch-Moroccans participate more and
    are more attached to online forum discussions
    in comparison to majority Dutch youth
    • Why?
    Community formation & belonging:
    “it is your own circle [of people], sort of” (girl, 16
    years)
    “really that Moroccan atmosphere” (girl, 16 years)
    5 Circulating counter voices
    • Digital “hush harbor”
    (Byrne, 2008 / Nunley, 2004)
    • “Subaltern counterpublics”
    (Fraser, 1990, p. 67).
     It is a sort of support. You have everyone who
    backs you up. It’s like everyone is on the same
    side. You get a sort of growing confidence. You
    just know, yes look, we are not the only ones who
    have this view and so on. You can express your
    opinion and all and you hear that others are similar
    to you (girl, 13 years)
    6 Gendered hush harbors?
    • Survey: Dutch-Moroccan girls are more
    active users and more attached to forums
    than Dutch-Moroccan boys.
    • Survey: Dutch-Moroccan girls use forums
    six times as much as majority Dutch girls.
    these things I’m definitely not going to my
    parents ‘Mom, dad, listen. Yes it is hchouma you
    know, I am shy to talk to my parents about these
    things (girl, 16 years).
    At home you can usually not talk about these
    things, otherwise you would have done that long
    ago [.] you can tell it online” (girl, 13 years)

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