26/4 Navigating opportunities and risks on Social Networking SitesTime


IMER Lunch Seminar Online self-presentations of young migrant women in Norway: Navigating opportunities and risks on Social Networking Sites
Time: Wednesday 26th April 2023, 12.00 – 13.00
Place: Bergen Global, Jekteviksbakken 31
You can also follow through Zoom. 
It will be great to know if you plan to join us using the registration link here. A light lunch will be served. 
Social Networking Sites (SNS) represent important social arenas in young people’s everyday life. SNS give young people with migrant backgrounds opportunities to keep in touch with family and friends in transnational networks and create opportunities to establish “digital neighbourhoods” of youth in Norway and elsewhere. Activities on SNS, however, also involve risk in relation to visibility and exposure and may reproduce and even reinforce processes of marginalization.
About the Seminar
In this seminar, Ingrid Onarheim Spjeldnæs and Rita Agdal will present research findings where they group-interviewed 15 young women aged 16 to 26 years who have lived in Norway for several years and originate from the Greater Middle East or from the Horn of Africa.
Their analysis suggests that these young women present themselves in carefully tailored ways according to affordances of SNS, such as anonymity, visibility, and persistence. Self-presentations are managed towards several particular, yet large and diverse audiences, bearing in mind the constant risks of experiencing challenges, such as “context collapse.” Their analysis draws upon research from communication researcher Hollenbaugh (2021) as well as a broader framework of social psychology and symbolic interactions.
Spjeldnæs and Agdal’s presentation will also touch upon the topic of settings-based health promotion strategies that aim to enable people to increase control over their health and environments. In this case, it implies sharing strategies to navigate complex networks, like emphasizing the importance of anonymous chats, sharing health-related information with extended networks with lower e-literacy, and the cocreation of health promotion strategies. Ingrid Onarheim Spjeldnæs is an Associate Professor at the Department of Welfare and Participation at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Research group of Community Work.Rita Agdal is an Associate Professor at the Department of Welfare and Participation at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Research group of Community Work.
Publications
Agdal, R. & Spjeldnaes, I.O. (2023). Developing Public Health Promotion Strategies for Social Networking Sites: Perspectives of Young Immigrant Women in Norway. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 4033. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4033 Agdal, R., Zachariassen, H.& Spjeldnæs, I.O. (2022). Samfunnsarbeid i digitale nabolag: Tre perspektiver på unge kvinner med innvandrerbakgrunn sine vilkår for deltakelse på sosiale nettverkssider. I Ågotnes, G.& Larsen, A.K. (Red.), Kollektiv mobilisering: teori og praksis. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalo
For questions about the event or if you experience problems registering, etc., please contact: Felicity.Okoth@uib.no 

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