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Home , Visual culture

10.1515/nor-2017-0225

Current Research Projects

Young People’s Consumption of Visual Collector Gadgets, Sexuality and Democracy

ANNA SPARRMAN

Young people (6-18 years of age) today are ap- them as consumers on the open market, 2) young proached as highly competent consumers of a visual people’s consumption and conceptualization of market consisting not only of products, but also of sexuality in visual and, finally, 3) ideas and values. Advertisements, food containers, visuality as an aspect of democratic processes. collector cards, computer games, fashion magazines The empirical material consists of video-re- and TV programmes, etc., are sold to young people corded focus group interviews, video-recorded not only as products, but as whole lifestyle packages. auto-driven interviews, video observations, diaries Moral panics raised by different groups of adults and questionnaires as well as pre-produced visual (parents, teachers, journalists and researchers) con- material such as TV programmes, film, advertise- cerning the influence these products have on young ments from magazines and product design. people in their everyday life illustrate a generational conflict, which is sometimes based on adults’ lack of knowledge about how young people and use Visuality, Consumption and Identity these products (Cohen 1972/1987; cf., Buckingham One main assumption of the study is that the visual 2000; Seiter 1993; Sparrman 2002). shapes the social at the same time as the social Different visual media play an essential part in shapes the visual (Mitchell 2002). This suggests a young people’s everyday life. Therefore it is impor- view of visual culture as socially and interactionally tant to study young people’s use of and attitudes to- constructed. Thus, visuality is not isolated. The fun- wards visual aspects in their own lives, i.e. what they damental idea is rather that the world is constituted appropriate and how visuality (products and ideas) both through, for example, language (linguistic influences their way of understanding themselves and turn) and through visuality (pictorial turn) and that the world they live in. The purpose of the research it is important to study intersections and interfaces project, Young people’s consumption of visual cul- between words and (Mitchell 1994, 2002). ture, is to study connections between young people Accordingly, in the present work, the concept of (6-18 years of age), consumption and visual culture visual culture refers to the specific relation between from a participant . Given that young peo- vision and knowledge. It is in this relation that ple spend the majority of their days in educational in- meaning is negotiated. By approaching visuality as stitutions, this study will be conducted through after- a significant constitutive force in society, it becomes school centres as well as regular school settings. This possible to reflect upon the important role visual makes it possible studying what knowledge young culture can play in the continuous process of, for people bring with them to school settings as well as example, people’s identity construction. the boarders between traditional school knowledge Today young people are born into a commercial and knowledge young people acquire from (visual) society of consumption. Nonetheless, schools and popular culture (i.e., mass produced and commercial education have long neglected the fact that educa- culture, Storey 1997/1998). tion and entertainment are intertwined (cf., Giroux In this research project, young people and visua- 1994; Buckingham and Sefton-Green 2000). At the lity are discussed in three different ways: 1) young same time as it is possible to purchase educational people’s notions of the directed to material designed for domestic use, visual popular

114 culture is introduced in school settings, for example and structure as well as the ambition to show the through Disney characters (cf., Giroux 1994; Sparr- concordance between objects, subjects and social man 2002). Pleasure, entertainment and education aspects from a participant perspective. Therefore, are intertwined and the notion of ‘edu-tainment’, a Norman Fairclough’s (1992, 2001) Critical Dis- hybrid genre, is introduced. This genre relies heav- course Analytical method (CDA) is used to compre- ily on visual material, narrative game-like formats hend how young people can make change come and on more informal, less didactic styles of address about (agency) as well as how they are restricted by (Scanlon and Buckingham 2002). Scanlon and or have to conform to social structures and everyday Buckingham argue that the pedagogy of these do- visuality/materiality, i.e. considering how young mestic educational materials is much less authoritar- people are both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ simultane- ian and more interactive than is formal schooling. ously (Prout, 2005). CDA also allows to emphasize As the Swedish school curriculum (Skolverket the power of the visual and its potential as producer 2000) has introduced a new notion of learning as a of knowledge about the world. It also makes it pos- constantly ongoing process, the boarders between sible to highlight the intersections between language the knowledge young people appropriate in school and taking place in the discursive practice. and other cultural domains have loosened (cf., To explore the ways in which visuality is impor- Hangaard Rasmussen 2001 for the new concept of tant in young people’s identity construction theories learning). In the national programme for Art (Skol- and methods derived from subject positioning verket 2000), global image are presented theory will be used (Davies and Harré 1990; Wal- alongside images of commercial importance as kerdine 1997; Bamberg 2004). In positioning theory moulders of public opinion and the importance identity is understood as accomplished and emerg- popular images have for young people in their iden- ing through social interaction. Accordingly, one can tity construction. Knowledge about visuality and investigate how, through social interaction (for ex- is stated to be an important ample talk), the visual positions young people at the prerequisite of participating in society. Emphasis is same time as young people position the visual and put on understanding the ideas behind social and how identity is negotiated through this interaction. cultural patterns of visuality, and images are under- Combining the interdisciplinary theories of visual stood as an important device for development and culture, CDA and positioning theory helps to inter- learning. It is also stated that pupils should be able mingle the private and the public. to express themselves and assimilate their cultural freedom of speech through visuality. Case Studies: Collector Gadgets, As I have argued earlier, the interdisciplinary theories of visual culture are especially productive Sexuality and Democracy when approaching young people’s use of and relation One long-standing market strategy for targeting to visuality (Sparrman 2002). By using the interdisci- children as consumers has been to use cartoons on, plinary terminology of visual culture (instead of con- for example, cereal boxes (Hill and Tilley 2002) to- cepts such as media, commercial culture, high and gether with extra gifts, gadgets, consisting of collec- ), it becomes possible to move beyond tor cards or objects and today computer games on dichotomizations between, for example, high and low CDs. As boarders between advertisements and prod- culture or speaking solely or specifically about com- uct design have been brought closer, food products mercial culture because, as Ellen Seiter (1993) states, today are more often designed to address young for young people all culture is commercial regardless people directly. One reason is that young people in of whether you purchase a Barbie doll or a Play- Western countries have an increased influence on mobil. By investigating young people’s notions and the family economy. That does not necessarily mean ideas about visuality rather than isolating different that young people have more money but that they media from one another, it is possible to understand have more influence on family decision-making and how different visualities intersect in young people’s consumption (Buckingham 2000). The aim of this everyday life, as well as how pedagogical ideas and first focus area in this research project is to investi- commercial aspects are interwoven with young peo- gate how young people themselves reason and argue ple’s lives. The research project aims to understand with regard to the design of food containers mar- how visuality intersects with children’s subjectivity keted at them as well as the included gadgets mar- and their situatedness in the social world. keting the food products. The aim is to understand In theoretical terms, the purpose is to understand consumer culture in context, i.e. the economic act of the dialectical and relational procedure of action purchasing, the utilization of the purchased product

115 and finally its symbolic values, as a process (Cook According to my findings from a previous study 2004). on school pupils’ (16-18 years of age) classroom Secondly, when focussing on young people’s no- discussions about sexuality in connection with the tions, ideas and values concerning friendship, love, school film showing of the film Lilya 4-ever, these relationships and sexuality in relation to visual discussions turned out to be stereotypical in their media, what is seen is the discrepancy between a representations of gender (Sparrman submitted). common adult rhetoric about young people, visual This raises questions about how the visual may be media and sexuality and how young people them- part of younger people’s gender identity construc- selves reason and argue about the very same issues in tions and how this can be discussed in terms of their everyday life. The purpose is to understand the equality, democracy and even notions of sexual citi- ways in which visual media contribute to young peo- zenship (Weeks 2003). These issues will be the third ple’s conceptualizations of friendship, love, relation- large question investigated further in the present re- ships and sexuality. In this part of the study, parents’ search project. notions of visual media and sexuality will be in- Forthcoming publications and findings will be cluded. reported on the website: www.liu.se/tema-b.

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Anna Sparrman, Ph.D., Researcher, Department of Child Studies, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, [email protected]

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