The emergence and development of the internet has facilitated massive changes to queer identities and communities; there are great changes in patterns of interaction, activism and communication for young queers.

It creates the space for widespread queer communities to form and offers a place for queer people to find and provide support, belonging, education, representation, that are not abundant in offline spaces. The ‘online’ has become a political ground that is shaping LGBTIQ+ activism and, with the plurality of interactional forms that are made possible, it opens opportunities for a multiplicity of action.

The internet is not an exclusively welcoming place. Since becoming de-anonymised, it is evident that offline power dynamics also exist online; manifesting in different forms of discrimination (e.g. hate speech online). In light of this, we ask: how this technology functions in overcoming inequality? How can we utilise it for this purpose? How do/can online and offline communities communicate, inform and transcend each other? And what are the implications for queer activism?

In this workshop we’d like to give an overview of the functioning of queer communities, corresponding sociological approaches, what the future might hold and recent changes in queer activism. We will then move on to offer space for the group to think and discuss about our use of online platforms and how we could engage differently.

'Queering' is a term used to describe the protesting of (hetero-)normativity through the inclusion and involvement of that which does not fit into this ideology. How can we queer the internet, together?

Maximum number of people: 25.