Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2019 with secondary school students in Kigali, Rwanda, this paper aims to shed light on the stance of Rwandan youth on recent policies and discussions about post-genocide reconciliation and peacebuilding. This article discusses the narratives articulated by Rwandan youth on three levels: positioning in relation to the Rwandan government, positioning the self and others in their communities and positioning the self in relation to 'Ndi Umunyarwanda' (I am Rwandan). The discussion of these narratives is based on the concepts of participatory spaces and positioning theory. The findings show that the legacy of the genocide, as well as the reconciliation process, is being performed through everyday actions by the youth. However, the limitations of participatory spaces prevent Rwandan youth from having their positions communicated, negotiated and diversified.
In this article, we focused on data drawn from two Brazilian Facebook groups that discuss on-demand driving (Uber and 99Pop). We focus particularly on the use of humour in the stories that on-demand drivers (ride-hailing) share, as it was identified that humour is widely used within these groups. This article has three objectives: (1) to detect the types of stories shared by on-demand drivers in the Facebook groups; (2) to determine the relationships these stories have with the work of on-demand driving; and (3) to understand the dimensions of professional identity and negotiation of platform labour conditions. Therefore, three dimensions of the stories shared by on-demand drivers were identified: the relationships they establish with their clients, their relationships with the platforms (the affordances and limitations the platforms provide and represent), and the everyday work relationships among the drivers developed by establishing Facebook as a digital workspace. These dimensions lead to the formation and negotiation of their professional identity and reveal how they deal with precarity through humour.
In contexts where young people feel prohibited from reflecting openly on sensitive political issues, they may explore alternative ways to communicate and negotiate their opinions and beliefs. Internet memes are popular digital artifacts that offer a space for such debates. This research focuses on the Internet memes that were created and used as an unconventional method for discussing post-genocide peacebuilding processes among Rwandan youth.These memes were made in storytelling workshops that involved interacting with transmedia projects and creating stories about peacebuilding and reconciliation processes in Rwanda, Guatemala and Cambodia. Within this context, this study approaches memes as participatory tools that allow (1) youth inclusion in post-genocide peacebuilding, often considered an 'adult topic' and (2) the mapping out of the social imaginaries of peace by young people in post-genocide societies. The paper analyzes how and why young Rwandans negotiate peacebuilding processes through memes and the ambivalence of utilizing memes for youth participation. The results suggest that meme-making emerged mainly as a response to intergenerational differences in discussing the genocide and peace-related issues.Humor in the memes unveiled differences in the ways of addressing peacebuilding processes. Detachment from other contexts resulted in more sarcastic articulations, whereas proximity led to more positive reflections on how peacebuilding should unfold in post-genocide societies. While meme-making proved to be useful for sparking discussions and manifesting imaginaries of peace, it also showed how certain dominant discourses about peacebuilding processes are embraced and often not contested within memes due to self-censorship.
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