ECREA16-Abstract

206

Thursday, November 10

1 1 : 0 0 – 1 2 : 3 0

PN 069

Creating Family Through Social Media Sites

R. Andreassen

Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

This paper investigates how social media sites facilitate new kinds of kinship. During the previous decade, an increasing number of Scandinavian single

mothers and lesbian couples have conceived children via donor sperm. At the same time, Scandinavia has one of the world’s highest Internet penetrations,

and the social network site Facebook is very popular (Jensen and Tække 2013). Consequently, several of these ‘donor families’ have connected with each

other online and created ‘donor groups’ on Facebook. One cannot know the identity of a sperm donor in Scandinavia, however, when using donor sperm,

one receives a donor number.Via this number, the parent of the donor child can connect with other parents who also have children conceived from the same

donor; hundreds of families have connected with each other this way during the previous few years. The intersection of social media sites and kinship opens

for new family formations; biological family members, who did not previous know that they were related, connect online and form new kinships. These

new relations reveal new contours of kinship (Hertz and Mattes 2011: 1130); this paper is interested in exploring how the interconnections between social

media sites and donor families invite to new norms and new understandings of family. This paper places itself in the intersections of social media studies

and kinship studies. Kinship studies has investigated how norms can be challenged though kinship (Thompon 2005; Mamo 2007). This paper analyzes how

social media sites create new kinship relations, and how norms and traditions are challenged within these new relations. Drawing upon Ellison and boyd

(2013: 158f.), this paper views Facebook as a ‘social network site’. The term underscores the importance of the social as well as of the network, both are

central when analyzing Facebook. Facebook connections of donor siblings are emotionally intense, and can be interpret as illustrations of how emotions

and social media intertwine in contemporary online practices. This paper is therefore also inspired by literature engaging with the intersections between

social media sites and emotions/affect (e.g. Kuntsman and Karatzogianni 2012). Key word: social media sites, kinship, alternative families, reproduction.

References Ellison, N. & Boyd, D. (2013) Sociality through social network sites. In Dutton, W. H. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies (151–172).

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hertz, R. & Mattes, J. (2011). Donor-Shared Siblings or Genetic Strangers: New Families, Clans, and the Internet. Journal

of Family Issues, Sep. 32, 1129–1155. Jensen, J. and Tække, J. (eds.) (2013). Facebook. Fra socialt netværk til metamedie. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.

Krolykke C. et al. (eds.) (2016). Critical Kinship Studies. London: Rowman and Littlefield Kunstman, A & Karatzogianni, A. (eds.) (2012). Digital cultures

and the politics of emotions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Mamo, L. (2007). Queering Reproduction. Durham: Duke University Press. Thompsen, C. (2005).

Making Parents. The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies. Cambridge: MIT Press.

PN 070

Extensions of Mobility and the Mobilizations of Disability Awareness-Raising on Social Media

M.B. Christensen-Strynø

Roskilde Universtity, Roskilde, Denmark

In this paper I explore potential extensions of mobility in relation to raising awareness about disability on social media. Departing from two cases – Made‑

line Stuart and Dear Julianna – that have each gained extensive visibility and attention on social media, I explore how social media facilitate new ways

of creating disability awareness-raising, and how access to the internet and social media platforms can be seen as ways of increasing mobility for people

living with disabilities. Both cases are characterized by rigorous understandings of social media conventions about how to strategically convey matters

on disability in online environments, e.g. elevate posting frequency, personalized narratives and images, as well as educational and awareness-raising

statements. In relation to examples of empirical findings, I consider how the mobilizations of individuals living with disabilities, groups, organizations and

supporters engaging on social media can be seen as ways of reclaiming mobility through online communication. Poell and van Dijck (2015) identify how

social media accelerate activist communication through advancements in mobility caused by the expansion of available mobile devices and new media

platforms. Such an observation seems to be strengthened when bearing in mind apparent issues about limitations of accessibility and mobility in relation

to new media technologies and people living with disabilities (Goggin & Newell 2003; Ellis & Kent 2011; Pearson & Trevisan 2015). Drawing on discus‑

sions and positions from disability studies and crip theory that consult the possibilities and limitations of creating new critical locations for people living

with disabilities (e.g. McRuer 2006; Kafer 2013), I argue that selected statements, updates and comments from the two cases can be read as expressions

of authority (from the disability community) and acknowledgment (from their audience). In addition, gaining visibility and attention on social media raise

important questions about how these opportunities also create new challenges in relation to raising awareness on disability online. Consequently, I address

how potential reductive idioms and styles of social media appear in the cases, e.g. through update-orientation, hashtagging, as well as in posts with inspi‑

rational and emotional statements and images (Ellis 2015). In this sense, the extended mobility of reaching grand crowds of audiences and users exist on

specific premises that is regulated by appropriate social media behavior and particular modes of disability representation (Goggin & Newell 2003; Pearson

& Trevisan 2015). References Ellis, Katie (2015) Disability and Popular Culture. Focusing Passion, Creating, Community and Expressing Defiance, Ashgate.

Ellis, Katie; Kent, Mike (2011) Disability and New Media, Routledge. Goggin, Gerard; Newell, Christopher (2003) Digital Disability. The Social Construction

of Disability in New Media, Rowmann & Littlefield Publishers. Kafer, Alison (2013) Feminist, Queer, Crip, Indiana University Press. McRuer, Robert (2006)

Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability, NewYork University Press. Pearson, Charlotte; Trevisan, Filippo (2015)“Disability activism in the new

media ecology: campaigning strategies in the digital era”, Disability & Society, 30:6, 924–940. Poell, Thomas; van Dick, José (2015)“Social Media and Activ‑

ist Networks”, C. Atton (ed.), Routledge, London, 527–37.