Background

It is important that cultural spaces should be as inclusive as possible for young people. In this context, there is a need for social and cultural research that focuses on the effect of social media on the relationship between young people and cultural spaces. In addition, there is a need for multi-method research design that incorporates innovative methods in order to fully understand the societal impacts of social media practices on young people’s identities.

LOCUS explores young people’s interactions with cultural spaces through the lens of social media consumption. This project investigates to what extent young people’s social media consumption transforms cultural spaces to “performative spaces” and how young people’s engagement with such spaces enacts their digital identities.

It focuses on youth as a group of people who have experienced extreme levels of uncertainty in the context of the Global Financial Crisis, during the inter-crisis years (between 2009 and 2019) and due to the Covid-19 crisis. The intention of this project is to understand their experiences as social actors and navigators of an uncertain world characterised by a scarcity of material resources and intensified uncertainty.

LOCUS seeks to address the context in which the present everyday lives are characterised by social media communication, how this is expressed in relation to cultural experiences and, in turn, how this moulds the ways young people come to be perceived by cultural organisations.

LOCUS’s key concern is to address the effects of digital media consumption and involve young people themselves in understanding the role of social media as a way to promote social inclusivity. The impact agenda of LOCUS is to collaborate with cultural institutions and policy-makers to use social media as a powerful tool for bringing young people close to cultural spaces.

Outcomes

We will produce reports in relation to the objectives of the project and related policy briefs. Furthermore, we will enhance academia-policy links by creating a flow of information with cultural institutions and organisations.

The project starts in October 2022 and runs for 24 months.