Landscapes of Hope

Youths’ Small Agencies of Online Futures in Finland

Authors

• Kristiina Korjonen-Kuusipuro
• Sari Tuuva-Hongisto South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23991/ef.v50i2.125597

Keywords:

digital youth, hope, affect, digital landscapes, digital ethnography, Finland

Abstract

Our article aims to offer counter-narratives to the risks and hardships of digital youth by scrutinizing how hope is present in youth’s lives in different online environments and everyday practices. We trace young people’s landscapes of hope by asking what kind of hopes and ideas of the digital future young people have about online environments and how they practice and cherish hope. To achieve these objectives, we draw on both qualitative and quantitative data produced in 2021–2022 among Finnish ninth graders. Our findings emphasize that young people’s online landscapes of hope are oriented toward the future, and they are in a constant state of co-becoming with different kinds of contexts, agencies, practices, and intensities.