Thomas Tufte keynote speaker at Intercom 2010

Ørecomm co-director Thomas Tufte will give a keynote speech at Intercom 2010, XXXIII Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, to be held at Universidade Caxias do Sul, Brasil.

Tufte’s speech will discuss “Youth, Communication and Social Change: Negotiating, Navigating and Narrating Youth Lives in a Glocal Reality”. This is the keynote abstract:  

“In our mediated and globalized world of today, how are young people negotiating identities and social relations? How do they use media and engage in communication, and for what purposes? How do young people engage with the development processes and challenges in the world? While ‘youth’ is a socially constructed conception of age and not just a biological given, this presentation will contextualize the ways in which and means with which youth engage in the world via media and communication. Based on my qualitative research experiences from Africa, Europe and Latin America, I seek to identify and explore some of the multiple dimensions of youth agency in their meeting with and uses of both new social media and more traditional media formats. My current research on youth, communication and social change in Tanzania in East Africa will be highlighted.

In discussing youth agency in the intersection between citizenship, social change, consumption and performance I outline three main analytical perspectives upon the way youth both negotiate, navigate and narrate their identities, experiences and social actions: consuming youth; performing youth and insurgent youth.”