The aim the project is to study how gender is created, expressed and normalized in online environments among young people (age 10 to 14 years old) in Estonia and Sweden. Furthermore, we will study what meaning this creation of identity has in their everyday life.
We will study the following three themes: a. How gender is expressed and normalized in online environments? b. What meanings has the online construction of gender, for the young in their everyday life? c. How do young people use media technology tools to complement verbal and written expressions in the shaping of the personal self? These themes are intertwined with the three sub-projects of the research project: A media critical analysis of the self-presentation images of young people online; an interview study with young people, and; how young people use media technologies in an act of shaping of the self. By this, we want to unite empirical research with more practical parts, where the informants also becomes partners in the research process.
Theoretically, the research projects builds upon intersectionalist theories. Coupled with theories emanating from the sociology of childhood studies, this will give us a basis for a comparative analysis of how experiences from the Internet are interwoven with experiences from the physical reality, in the construction of gender among young people in Estonia and Sweden.