Young women, late modern politics, and the participatory possibilities of online cultures

New technologies are often perceived as important resources in attracting young people
to formal politics, but less is known about how young people use them to create
participatory practice on their own terms. This article examines young women’s less
conventional technology-enabled political and social activity in order to understand how
these are operating as emergent modes of participation in a new political environment. It
explores young women’s use of online DIY culture, blogs, social networking sites and
related technologies to open up questions about what counts as politics, and what is
possible as politics for young people, and young women in particular, at the present
moment. It suggests that these activities represent new directions in activism, the
construction of new participatory communities, and the development of new kinds of
public selves, while also telling us important things about the limits of the kinds of
conventional citizen subject positions offered to young women at this time.