Kate Orton-Johnson’s research while affiliated with University of Edinburgh and other places

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Publications (7)


Mummy Blogs and Representations of Motherhood: “Bad Mummies” and Their Readers
  • Article
  • Full-text available

April 2017

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1,170 Reads

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118 Citations

Social Media + Society

Kate Orton-Johnson

Digital technologies have opened up new environments in which the experiences of motherhood and mothering are narrated and negotiated. Studies of “mummy blogs” have explored the ways in which blogs, as social media networks, can provide solace, support, and social capital for mothers. However, research has not addressed how mothers, as readers of blogs, use the mamasphere as a cultural site through which the identities and role of motherhood, and the mother–child relationship, are socially and digitally (re)constructed. This article focuses on confessional blogging of the “bad” or “slummy” mummy: blogs that share stories of boredom, frustration, and maternal deficiency while relishing the subversive status of the “bad” mummy. Drawing on understandings of social media as a space of social surveillance and networked publics, the article argues that in framing narratives of motherhood in terms of parental failure and a desperation for gin, “bad mummy” blogs collapse social contexts in important and interesting ways. Using an example of a conflict between two mummy bloggers, the article will reflect on the ways in which the digital terrain of motherhood can both liberate and constrain: a space for mothers to express and share frustrations and seek solidarity, a space of public condemnation and judgment, and a space that poses ethical issues in the digital curation of family life.

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Knit, purl and upload: new technologies, digital mediations and the experience of leisure

May 2014

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117 Reads

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63 Citations

Leisure Studies

In the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in knitting and an accompanying set of leisure practices from ‘stitch n bitch’ groups and pub knitting circles to fibre festivals and knit meets. Alongside this renaissance is a growing presence of ‘crafsters’ and ‘knitsters’ on the web, with blogs and podcasts devoted to the craft and social networking sites connecting a global community of knitters. The leisure experience of knitting now proliferates across multiple media sites and flows through various lifeworlds and circuits of consumption. This technological expression of the craft provides an interesting juxtaposition for exploring meanings and practices of mediated leisure and this article will argue that web 2.0 technologies have given users new ways to think about and engage with their creativity that, in turn, have become an embedded part of their construction and enjoyment of leisure practice. Technology use can be understood as a reciprocal and interconnected aspect of knitting as leisure and the study of techno-cultural change marks a territory where distinctions between leisure and technology are increasingly dissolved. Knitting as a material craft provides a useful example of the way in which virtual networks and environments have reshaped the consumption of leisure in rich and dynamic ways.


Afterword: Mediating the Digital

January 2013

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17 Reads

This pair of essays combines effectively to constitute an invitation and a corrective, but they also pose a set of provoking questions. They invite the reader to ponder if and how technological innovations congeal around contemporary mediated practices in ways which recast our understandings of social and cultural relations. Here, both war reporting and social networks require a distinct sociological treatment, but one which treads delicately between the Scylla of modishness (the uncritical waving of the web 2.0 banner, for instance) and the Charybdis of absolute stasis, where little has changed. In this sense, they show why it is important to resist imprecise characterisations of digital mediations which replace fine-grained examinations of situated material practices with flabby sloganeering. That they do so whilst insisting on the importance of framing concepts reinforces the necessity of a theoretically attuned sociology of the digital that never loses sight of local relations. To bring together networks, mediations and communications is, after all, to associate three complex and multi-layered terms that have abstract qualities as well as evoking palpable, concrete, material worlds.


Digital sociology: Critical perspectives

January 2013

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580 Reads

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114 Citations

Sociology and our sociological imaginations are having to confront new digital landscapes spanning mediated social relationships, practices and social structures. This volume assesses the substantive challenges faced by the discipline as it critically reassesses its position in the digital age. © Kate Orton-Johnson and Nick Prior 2013 and their respective authors 2013.



'I've stuck to the path I'm afraid': Exploring student non-use of blended learning

July 2008

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87 Reads

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109 Citations

This paper draws on qualitative data from a study of student use of blended learning as part of a conventionally taught undergraduate Sociology course. Findings from an early evaluation questionnaire highlighted an overwhelming pattern of non-use of the materials and subsequent research with a group of 16 students evidenced limited and inconsistent engagement with the resources. In an analysis of the category ‘non-use’, the students’ rejection of the materials is seen to be closely related to a trust in traditional texts as authentic academic knowledge and an instrumental and strategic approach to study. Blended learning resources are shown to challenge existing learning patterns and practices, reconfigure existing understandings and expectations of academic scholarship and reconstruct academic boundaries in new spaces.


The Online Student: Lurking, Chatting, Flaming and Joking

December 2007

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160 Reads

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20 Citations

Sociological Research Online

This paper looks at the use of online conference interaction as a part of a web-based distance-learning course. There has been much debate surrounding the potential of educational technology, particularly online conference interaction, to support teaching and learning yet little attention has been paid to student experiences and understandings of the online learning environment. Drawing on data from auto-ethnographic fieldwork the paper identifies 5 categories of participation in asynchronous online conferences: lurker participation, member participation, expert/experienced participation, flamer participation and joker participation. Through an exploration of these forms of participation the paper attempts to understand and illustrate the complexities and contradictions of situating conference interaction alongside the demands of study. The analysis highlights the role of online conferencing as a space for ‘interaction work’ distinct and separated from existing repertoires of formal study. The paper concludes by suggesting that pedagogically successful use of conferences as part of distance learning needs to understand the challenges and demands of remediating existing practices.

Citations (6)


... "realistické" matky. Jejich obsah se snaží prezentované příspěvky dokonalého mateřství "uvést na pravou míru", například humorem pojednávajícím o každodenních zkušenostech matek, které jsou daleko od ideálu (Orton-Johnson, 2017). Spadají sem také příspěvky infleuncerek, které sdílí nepříjemné prožitky, jež se v průběhu mateřství objevují, jako jsou vyčerpanost, nejistota či hormonální nestabilita (Lopez, 2009 (Olpin et al., 2023). ...

Reference:

Mateřská regulace vlivu instagramových účtů zaměřených na rodičovství
Mummy Blogs and Representations of Motherhood: “Bad Mummies” and Their Readers

Social Media + Society

... Вони, зокрема, 2012 року створили дослідницьку групу з цифрової соціології та запровадили магістерську програму з цифрової соціології. Пізніше, у 2013-му, було опубліковано роботу під назвою «Цифрова соціологія: критичні перспективи» [13], метою якої було певне розмежування й формування чіткішого розуміння концепту бінарних опозицій -віртуального / реального та наступності / трансформації. Різні розділи, зібрані за тематичними блоками -«відносини», «простір», «структура», «посередництво» та «практика», -окреслюють основні теми, які характеризують сучасне суспільство, і формують інтереси цифрової соціології: зміни у відносинах і спільнотах, спричинених цифровими соціальними мережами; зміни у відносинах із простором; цифрова нерівність; система суспільних відносин в епоху цифрових технологій тощо. ...

Digital sociology: Critical perspectives
  • Citing Book
  • January 2013

... These individuals may select passive ICT alternative activities to conserve energy for future active leisure opportunities rather than ICT use, indicating a lack of interest in traditional active pursuits. Nimrod and Ivan [49] and Orton-Johnson [73] suggests that ICT can enrich traditional leisure experiences, providing participants with relevant knowledge and motivation through online content. The assump-tion that offline active leisure and online passive leisure are inherently contradictory may be misguided; instead, these activities may complement each other [49]. ...

Knit, purl and upload: new technologies, digital mediations and the experience of leisure
  • Citing Article
  • May 2014

Leisure Studies

... The importance of online education vs. conventional teaching is a constant source of concern (Panyajamorn et al., 2018). According to UK research, even computerliterate learners prefer face-to-face instruction and learning (Orton-Johnson, 2009 While this affected informal learning, learners found that online learning was the best way to continue their education after school closure, and travel restriction was ordered. For all students in South Africa, both tertiary and high school, the government enforced that they return to their home cities in April 2020 to complete their education, which they must do entirely online. ...

'I've stuck to the path I'm afraid': Exploring student non-use of blended learning
  • Citing Article
  • July 2008

... In the latter, individuals may operate in public spaces while still maintaining expectations of privacy related to use of data (Markham & Buchanan, 2012). Conversely, for e-commerce sites, public message boards, or forums open to nonmembers that are intentionally public, individuals posting on these platforms may be aware that their messages are accessible to anyone (ESRC, 2015;Orton-Johnson, 2010;Rodham & Gavin, 2006). Some ethical guidelines highlight that user expectations of privacy may change based on cultural norms, platforms, technological literacy, and individual preferences (AoIR 3.0: 2020; BPS, 2021). ...

Ethics in Online Research; Evaluating the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics Categorisation of Risk
  • Citing Article
  • December 2010

Sociological Research Online

... An alternative view is held by those who compare lurkers to those students who sit silently in face-to-face lectures and seminars and then do well in assessments; this perspective is also evident in the literature (see, for example, . Those who take this position typically foreground the nonvisible activities involved in discussion board participation, referring to those who lurk but do not actively post as "quiet participants" (Wilton, 2018), "active lurkers" (Orton-Johnson, 2007) or "silent learners" (Creelman, 2017). Although the reason for lurking is portrayed as a preference for observation by the individual (Yang and Richardson, 2008) just as it is with the "free-riding" perspective, in this case lurking is not necessarily seen as something that needs to be eliminated. ...

The Online Student: Lurking, Chatting, Flaming and Joking
  • Citing Article
  • December 2007

Sociological Research Online