Negotiating Identities : Exploring children’s perspectives on themselves and their lives

Sammanfattning: This dissertation consists of four empirical studies as well as a framework of intersecting perspectives. The aim of this thesis is to describe and explain children’s perspectives of themselves and their lives within and outside of the school walls: at home, and in their diaries on the internet.To illuminate children’s perspectives and experiences an ethnographic approach is used: data is collected from a range of sources such as observations, informal conversations and frequent interviews, as well as texts written by children in school and on the Internet.The dissertation has been written within the framework of various intersecting theoretical and methodological perspectives, with a steady focus on children’s involvement in the formation of new meanings in their own social sphere. It is inspired by the sociology of childhood, as theorised by William Corsaro, but it also relies on Bronwyn Davies’ and Stuart Hall’s theories which regard identities as fluid and ongoing processes.The common goal of the investigations is the study of children’s perspectives on themselves and their own lives, with the aim of contributing to new methodologies for understanding child and youth culture. Children are in focus as research collaborators and encouraged to take the initiative in introducing themes that are of interest to them. Asking children to contribute with knowledge they considered to be important to them is the thesis’ overall strategy for making sense of children’s lives and their concerns.The main view of children is traditionally related to their dependency on the protection of, and provision from adults. As a result, we frequently get caught in the trap of viewing childhood as a period of deficiency and children as immature and incompetent individuals who are disconnected from the social world. On the contrary, studies in this thesis focus on the social and cultural capacity of children in constructing their own meanings and negotiating their own identities. The use of the term “negotiating” is intended to draw attention to the fact that although children are exposed to different cultural identities in many ways, they do not passively adopt them. Rather, they make use of negotiations in order to modify and alter limitations to their identities and are actively involved in constructing new perceptions and possibilities in relation to their social positions and cultural identities.