LGBT+ Youth and Emerging Technologies in Southeast Asia: Designing for Wellbeing (Perspectives on Children and Young People, 14)

This book investigates the ways in which emerging digital technologies are shaping and changing the worlds of sexuality and gender diverse youth in Southeast Asia. Primarily focused on the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, the book examines the potential of digital technologies to enhance wellbeing in and across these contexts. Drawing on multi-site ethnographic field research, interviews, survey data, and online content analysis, the book examines the design and use of websites and content by and for LGBT+ youth. The book innovatively interrogates the design of transnational digital wellbeing initiatives, alongside the digital practices of those the technologies are designed for. It illustrates not only the (im)possibilities of technological design, but also the capacity for design to participate in what Hanckel calls ‘(trans)national digital wellbeing’ processes. He asks us to consider the ways that global technologies are contextual―a paradox that is explored throughout the book. The analysis extends important discussions in youth research, contributing to a greater understanding of how LGBT+ youth are engaging new technologies to participate in identity-making, health and wellbeing, as well as political action. It also considers implications for digital wellbeing and digital health promotion efforts globally with young people who experience marginalisation. In doing so the book makes a critical contribution to understanding the ways that transnational digital interventions get deployed and (at times) incorporated into youth practices. Preface Acknowledgments Contents 1 Queer Youth and Digital Technologies in Southeast Asia Introduction Being LGBT+ in Southeast Asia Transnational (Im)possibilities of Digital Technologies This Book (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Digital Wellbeing (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Practices (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Initiatives A Multi-sited Ethnographic Study Positionality The Capability Approach The Capability Approach and Social Theories Affordances Pierre Bourdieu: Habitus and Capital Affect and Technological Design The Structure of the Book Concluding Comments References 2 Queer Youth (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Practices Introduction May (Thailand) Dian (Indonesia) Jia Hao (Malaysia) Val (Philippines) Making Sense of Life with the Internet Accessibility and Privacy Capability Needs Concluding Comments References 3 Queer Safe(r) Spaces: Designing Wellbeing Technologies for LGBT+ Youth Introduction (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Initiatives The BE Web-App: Designing a Transnational Digital Health Intervention The Knowledge Base: Providing the ‘Facts’ Across Contexts Question and Answer Feature Services Map The ‘Help Desk’ Videos The (Imagined) LGBT Users: Queer Subjects Living Across Online and Offline Spaces Defining the User[s] Digital Technologies as Circumventing/Mitigating Barriers to Realising Capabilities Designing for Affect: ‘Safety’ and ‘Security’ in the Design of the (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Initiative Back-End Design Considerations Front-End Design Considerations Signs, Symbols and Cumulative Value: The Expected Affective Response Concluding Comments References 4 The Implementation of (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Initiatives: (Un)intended Consequences in a Global Context Introduction Launching BE: A (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Initiative Launching the Initiative: Dealing with Cyber Attacks BE: An Overview of the Users Queer Young Peoples’ Encounters with the Digital Wellbeing Initiative Security and Safe(r) Space: Affective Experiences Enhancing Capabilities? Examining the Met and Unmet Needs of Queer Youth Conclusion References 5 From Activist Filmmaker to ‘Agony Aunt’: Examining Queer Filmmakers’ Experiences of Producing and Sharing YouTube Content in Asia Introduction LGBT+ and Video Content Online: What Do We Know? The Coalition Model Stories of Being Me: An Overview The Filmmakers’ and Storytellers’—An Overview Producing Films in Contentious Spaces Cha Darius Constructing Narratives for Multiple Imagined Audiences To Inspire the ‘LGBT Community’ Aims to Present Alternate Narratives and Discourses Appealing to Sameness: Constructing Stories that are ‘like other people’ Post-production: Release of the Films The Circulation of Content: Following the Films with the Filmmakers’ and Storytellers’ Spaces of Disclosure: Participation in the Affective Afterlives of the Films Filmmakers Enhanced Capabilities Concluding Comments References 6 Emerging (Trans)national Wellbeing Technologies: Understanding Them Across Contexts Introduction Capabilities and Contexts: Making Sense of Digital Technologies and Wellbeing Outcomes (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Practices Experiences of Stigma and Discrimination Access and Capital: Enhanced (Trans)national Digital Wellbeing Practices Safe(r) Design Encountering Safe(r) Spaces Affect and ‘Spaces of Disclosure’ (Un)Realised Capabilities: Surfacing ‘Capability Needs’ Dancing with Communities Contributions to Structural Inequalities Implications and Further Research Final Remarks References