Facts

Contact person:
Ulrika Sjöberg
Financer:
  • Swedish Research Council
Responsible at MaU:
Ulrika Sjöberg
Affiliated:
  • Helena Sandberg – Lunds universitet
  • Ebba Sundin – Högskolan i Halmstad
Time frame:
01 January 2019 - 01 September 2023
Faculty/department:
Research subject:

About the project

Very young children gain access to and use digital technology, touchscreen tablets, apps, smartphones and the internet of things, in a pace and extension never witnessed before. In the tech-friendly country of Sweden, this transformation of childhood has hitherto been neglected in research, but calls for attention and needs to be critically analyzed.

The aim of the project is to gain new insights into the ways in which digital technology informs and permeates the everyday lives of children, 0-3 yrs. old. The project will investigate their digital media appropriation, practices and agency as well as parental mediation strategies, to advance our understanding of their implications on childhood and family life. Furthermore, the project highlights the status of childrens’ early digital literacy skills, thereby also identifying implications for policy in relation to education, parenting, and the media industry. The project will make empirical and analytical contributions to two strands of research: the domestication of technology research, and theories on parental mediation.

The project proposes a qualitative in-depth, and contextualized approach, focusing on 20 children and their families in a time-condensed ethnography, inspired by the well-researched ‘A Day in the life’ methodology, involving three visits in each family, and the construction of a thick set of data through interviews, survey, observations and video-recording the children in the domestic sphere.