Det politiska rummet : villkor för situationspolitisk socialisation i en nätgemenskap av och för ungdomar

Sammanfattning: The aim is to analyse the institutional character of, and the on-going communication in, a net community organised by and for young people. This is achieved using terms of conditions for situational political socialisation – a situation in a specific context in which the participants, within the battle between different groups attempting to organise society through interaction and action, adopt political preferences and skills. The thesis builds on agonism, a political theory in which controversy and struggle are viewed as prerequisites for human life that uses language as a political act. The net community, as an institution, contingently depends on political rebirth via action and communication. The use of language creates places that give the institution meaning while at the same time the institution claims the participants and their creation of meaning. Black Heart, the analysed net community, is a quasi-public space for and by young people aged between 14 and 28 years. It is a cultural community where political conversations take place among other kinds of communication. The institutional character of Black Heart and ten politically controversial conversations are analysed, using a case study method that applies web content analysis and computer mediated discourse analysis. There is a strong institutional framework operating in the political text conversations of Black Heart, the participants are governed by the institution and the participants govern each other. The political communication is characterised by revealing and arguing for political interest. To challenge is the dominant category of political action which constitutes political subjects that are offensive, argumentative and polemic. Political communication and the on-going interaction generate an educational situation in which the participants are expected to be content oriented, argumentative, expressive, communicative and polemic.