eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy Into Dialogue with Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices

We are proud to announce the forthcoming publication of The eGirls Project’s book volume, eGirls, eCitizens: Putting Technology, Theory and Policy Into Dialogue with Girls’ and Young Women’s Voices. Edited by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves, this volume will feature a collection of essays from eGirls Project researchers as well as invited contributions from other scholars working in the field.  eGirls, eCitizens will be available in spring 2015 from uOttawa Press.

ABSTRACT

Online connectivity is rapidly becoming essential to social, cultural, economic and political participation, especially among girls and young women who are leading producers of online content. Interestingly, initially utopic predictions from policymakers about the pot of gold sitting at the end of the information superhighway and from critical scholars about the emancipatory potential of participation in digital media are increasingly interlaced with dystopic concerns associated with the mass uptake of networked technologies by youth, particularly girls and young women. Policymakers have tended to focus upon issues such as online child pornography, online luring, cyberbullying and non-consensual disclosure of intimate images. Critical scholars, in turn, have raised concerns about misuse of personal information, online misogyny, racism and homophobia, poor digital literacy skills, and underlying economic models that shape users into consumers, rather than citizens. And yet, all too often, girls’ voices are left out of theoretical, policy and educational dialogue about online issues that directly affect them. This collection of essays reframes the discussion in ways that make space for more equitable and empathetic responses, rather than polarized utopic/dystopic debate. It analyzes the equality, privacy and gender performativity implications of the digital environment and its impacts on girls’ online participation; assesses the ways in which stakeholders construct girls in theoretical, policy and educational discourses; and suggests future approaches and best practices that are premised on girls’ own understandings of their needs and aspirations in an increasingly digitized society.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction – Cyber-utopia? Getting beyond the binary notion of technology as good or bad for girls – Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves                                             

Part I – It’s not that simple: Complicating girls’ experiences on social media

  1. A perfect storm: How the online environment, social norms and law shape girls’ lives – Jane Bailey [Abstract]
  1. Revisiting cyberfeminist theory as a tool for understanding young women’s experiences –  Trevor Scott Milford [Abstract]
  1. Thinking beyond the Internet as a tool: Girls’ online spaces as postfeminist structures of surveillance – Akane Kanai [Abstract]
  1. The Internet and friendship seeking: Exploring the role of online communication in young recently immigrated women’s social lives – Assumpta Ndengeyingoma [Abstract]
  1. “She’s just a small town girl, living in an online world”: Differences and similarities between urban and rural girls’ use of and views about online social networking – Jacquelyn Burkell and Madelaine Saginur [Abstract]

Part II – Living in a gendered gaze

  1. “Pretty and just a little bit sexy, I guess”: Publicity, privacy and the pressure to perform “appropriate” femininity on social media – Valerie Steeves [Abstract]
  1. Girls and online drama: Aggression, surveillance or entertainment? – Priscilla M. Regan and Diana L. Sweet [Abstract]
  1. How do the digital affordances of social networking practices mediate teens’ gender and sexual cultures? – Jessica Ringrose and Laura Harvey [Abstract]

Part III – Dealing with sexualized violence

  1. Rape threats and revenge porn: Defining sexual violence in the digital age – Jordan Fairbairn [Abstract]
  1. “Motion to dismiss”: Invasion of privacy, heteronormativity and the sex lives of others online in J. v. Ravi – Andrea Slane [Abstract]
  1. Defining the legal lines: E-girls and intimate images – Shaheen Shariff and Ashley DeMartini [Abstract]
  1. “She’s such a slut!”: The sexualized cyberbullying of teen girls and the education law response – Gillian Angrove [Abstract]

Part IV – From eGirls to eCitizens

  1. Digital literacy and digital citizenship approaches to girls’ online experiences – Matthew Johnson [Abstract]
  1. Security and insecurity online: Perspectives from girls and young women – Sarah Heath [Abstract]
  1. Transformative works: Young women’s voices on fandom and fair use – Betsy Rosenblatt and Rebecca Tushnet [Abstract]
  1. I want my Internet! Young women on the politics of usage-based billing – Leslie Regan Shade [Abstract]

 Click here to find out more about this exciting collection!