Making a Mess with Situational Analysis May 12, 2010
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Academic, PhD, Talks.17 comments
At the Department of Communication here at Aalborg University we have a doctoral program in Human Centered Communication and Informatics (HCCI) which each Wednesday hosts informal lunch seminars where PhD students can discuss ongoing research, present paper or dissertation drafts etc. Today me and guest from Aarhus School of Business, Annette Agerdal-Hjermind, each gave a presentation under the headline ‘Making a Mess with Situational Analysis’. Annette and I are both using Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2005) in our PhD projects and we wanted to exchange experiences and receive feedback from colleagues.
Annette is working with blogging in an organisational context and gave an interesting presentation on her case, data and how she is planning to use Clarke’s situational maps when coding, mapping and categorising her data. You can learn more from her PhD blog.
The situational maps are exactly the parts of Clarke’s framework I have integrated in my PhD project. Here, I am using Scollon & Scollon’s (2004) Nexus Analysis as a methodological and theoretical framework. As a first step in a Nexus Analysis the Scollons suggest that you make broad-stroke maps of your field and the many discourse cycles that are circulating through the moment of social action you are studying. I think Clarke’s maps are useful tools when engaging in such a task, since the point is to map out “the complex situations of inquiry broadly conceived” (Clarke & Friese, 2007, p. 366). Both Clarke and the Scollons believe that ‘context’ should be understood and treated as something that exists within the siuation of inquiry (and not as mere background). Therefore, I think the two frameworks go well together and the combination has worked for me when trying to sketch out maps of young people’s use of social network sites in Denmark.
You can learn more and see the slides from my presentation here (at the last slide I have included a list of references.):
Science communication competition April 16, 2010
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Academic, Science communication, Talks.5 comments
Next 
week I am participating in a national competition in science communication called ‘Forsker Grand Prix 2010’. The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, who is behind the competition, has launched it as an academic version of X Factor or as “Rock ‘n Research”.
We are eight PhD students with very different academic backgrounds competing to be ‘Research Communicator of the Year’. We each have three minutes to present our research in a vivid and enthralling manner whereupon the audience and a panel of judges will vote two of us in the final. The three judges will provide us with comments and rate us after each performance. In this way, the competition very much resembles a talent show and even though I am used to giving talks and presenting my research I think it will be a huge challenge presenting under these conditions.
Read more about the competition here (in Danish).
I have prepared two presentations on ‘The Digital Youth Culture’ and ‘Youthful Emotions in Public Space’. I will let you know how it turns out 🙂
Update: I came in on a shared third place. See press coverage of the event here, here and here.
Three kinds of online safety May 6, 2009
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Internet Safety, Talks, Youth.3 comments
During the past few weeks I have been giving a couple of public talks at different conferences in Denmark, all focusing on youth and digital media. Even though my talks usually don’t include many perspectives on online safety and focus more on communicating my research results and giving a general introduction to how Danish youth use social network sites, I know that many of the participants (often teachers, social educators, parents, librarians etc.) are interested in knowing how to teach kids about safety issues.
In this regard I recently read an interesting post from the NetFamilyNews blog. Here, Anne Collier offers three perspectives on online safety and internet literacy:
- Physical safety – the one we have focused on the most, freedom from physical harm by predators and bullies
- Psychological safety – freedom from cruelty, flaming, and other forms of harassment and cyberbullying involving ex-friends, mean kids, bullies, colleagues, etc. […]
- Reputational and legal safety – these can overlap with the psychological kind, where, for example, online defamation can harm someone’s reputation; they provide for freedom from restriction or repercussion as a result of online communication or production by one’s self or others […].
She argues that US kids “have practically tuned out the term online safety” because of a strong focus in US society on the first perspective. The term “can’t really help them deal with the complexities of their online/offline social lives, it’s in danger of becoming irrelevant to them”, she writes. I agree very much with Collier and her point is quite similar to what I was trying to argue in this article on Nettendenser in December. I think it is important to focus not only on the threats and risks (and thereby treating children and young people as victims) in order to get them to listen to advice on online safety.
Read the post from NetFamilyNews here (which also includes many relevant links) .
Youth, Web 2.0 and the library September 10, 2007
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Libraries, Talks, Web 2.0, Youngsters, Youth Culture.1 comment so far
This Friday I am attending and speaking at an interesting conference called “Ung 2.0” (“Youth 2.0”) about youth, culture and the library. The conference aims at defining what preoccupies young people today and how the libraries can accommodate the youngsters in the future. I am giving a presentation on youth and virtual communities (social networking sites) based on my research. Read more about the conference here (only in Danish).
Also, I have been writing an article about “the digital library users of the future” for the Danish journal DF Revy. (I will remember to post a link when it comes out.)
Furthermore, I have been giving interviews on how libraries can seek inspiration in social networking sites. And I am speaking at another conference dealing with the very same subject at The Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen later this month.
It is nice to see that libraries are really embracing the world of Web 2.0, social software and new media and trying to design for a new generation of library users.
Upcoming talks August 15, 2007
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Lectures, Talks.add a comment
I have quite a few talks, lectures and presentations coming up this fall – mostly at different conferences or events in Denmark. I have created an “Upcoming talks” section to the right so my activities will be visible. I will keep the list updated with information about the conferences etc.
My PhD Blog 