Re/making the Self in Research Blogs: Reflexivity and (Digital) Archives of the Present

• In Event: 73.060 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 73.060-6 - Technology and Understanding Our Work, Narratively

Abstract

How young people navigate and use online platforms remains an under explored area of youth research. Additionally, the ways in which young people perform and ‘archive’ themselves is an increasing matter of concern in youth policy (Blackman et al. 2008). Drawing upon ‘blog’ posts from a longitudinal study into young women undertaking their senior year in Victoria, Australia, this paper argues that young people produce and perform ‘archives of the self’ in engaging with online spaces. It suggests an approach to youth research which is sensitive to the reflexive capacity of online spaces, paired with the temporal capacities of longitudinal qualitative methods (McLeod & Thomson 2009) might be particularly generative for capturing the emergence, inscription, and reflexivity of the self.

Author

• Shane Duggan, The University of Melbourne