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Vital (non)virtuality
Associate Professor Jette KofoedAarhus University, DPU
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
eXbus (2007-11)
Seven interdisciplinary research projects:• Parents’ influence • Teachers’ influence• Long term effects of bullying experiences• Philosophical questions (evil, guilt, responsibility)• A quantitative study• Intra-action with computer games ,reality shows
and movies• Digital bullying
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Qualification of…
• …the relationship between the ’virtual’ and the ’non-virtual’/the ’real’ and ’cyber’
• ’Vital’ hints at a Deleuzian understanding of vitality
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Digital@bullying
• focuses upon the meaning (making) of school children’s use of chat and cell phones related to bullying.
• With a technology in hand a pupil is not merely a pupil, but a different actor, namely a subject with a technology.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Setting the scene: Children and bullying
• 82 % chat and text on a daily basis• 41 % of the responding children have
experienced intense negative communication (Rabøl Hansen & Rasmussen 2005).
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Empirical data I: The conference
• The conference was arranged by the Danish Media Council.
• A continuous repetition of the ‘fact’ that there is a ’real world’ and a ’cyber world’.
• Suggestion: To (re)conceptualize the relationship and at the same time to uphold a differentiation.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Empirical data II: Written essays
• Collection of written essays from 6th and 7th graders. I collected 69 essays.
• Two overall themes 1. ”Me and my cell phone” and 2. ”Me and the chat room”.
• The essays did not hold any explicit information on youngsters’ perspectives on virtuality and non-virtuality
• Transgression of the difference which appeared so evident in context of the conference
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Theoretical orientation
• The (becomings of) subjectivities (Butler, Foucault, Davies, Søndergaard)
• Positioning (Davies)• Meaning making processes as they occur among
subjects in educational contexts. • Enacting forces and ways in which power co-
constitute subjects (Foucault)• Minoritizing and majoritizing processes (Kofoed,
Staunæs)• Intersectionality of social categories (Phoenix,
Søndergaard, Juelskjær,Staunæs, Kofoed)
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
What becomes apparent?
• Who marks what kinds of differentiations in what contexts?
• If we assume that there is a difference – what do we then find?
• If we assume that there is no differentiation between ‘virtual’ and ‘non-virtual’ – what do we then find?
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Possible qualifications…
• Perceiving the relationship as a relationship – and not a dichotomy, a difference, a limit, a differentiation
• Makes it possible to theorize the fluctuations, lines of flight and circulations as well as barriers of emotions in and between contexts and in and between ‘virtual’ and ‘nonvirtual’.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Circulation of emotions
• Emotions travel and enlarge or minimize relationships.
• Technologies colour communication in a number of ways.
• Production of engagement and affection
• Production of fear and anxiety• Production of need for control
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
A Deleuzian way
• As a way to develop a possible way of conceptualization.
• Enable us to conceptualize the many enacting forces and to do so without focusing on the number and naming of forces.
• Concentrate on analyzing the relationship between the forces in question.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
The ambition
• The analytical and theoretical ambition will thus be to qualify the ways in which the enacting forces in bully practices intersect and the ways in which the relationship between what we recognize as ‘the real’ and ‘the virtual’ is maintained and transgressed.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Ensuring the project?
• Avoiding normative and ontological traps.
• Those of the many Tales:• The Tale of Concern• The Tale of Per Se Evilness• The Tale of Judgment• The Tale of WrongDoing
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
Why?
• In order to make room for research that raises questions, which postpones signification, which makes room for multiple meanings, and which allows for conversion of power relations and sedimented meaning making.
Jette Kofoed; Aarhus University, DPU
…
Escaping the Tales…
• Enabling the researcher to navigate• Provide technologies of power for the
researcher in order to make room for epistemological curiosity and possibilities of withdrawing from the powerful Tales.
