"Janne X was here". Portraying identities and negotiating being and belonging in informal literacy practices

Abstract

The study presented in this chapter examines young people's identity work and informal literacy practices in two separate, yet intertwined settings: in a "bilingual" school context located in Sweden and a social network site. Drawing on sociocultural approaches and (n)ethnographic data, the main aim of the chapter is to expand understandings dealing with identity work and heteroglossic languaging, including informal literacy practices, in settings across the offline-online continuum. Through analysis of data sets consisting of video recordings, photographs and screen grabs, the concepts of languaging and identity-as-agency are explored from a discourse analytical perspective. The findings illustrate the ways in which interactions, agency and social positionings emerge at the intersection of people, discourses, spaces, practices and technologies. Portraying identity positions and negotiating being and belonging becomes possible in and through practices where multiple aspects of communicative repertoires and modalities are employed.