Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EPH-FEM-PI (Exploring Ephemeral Feminisms on Portuguese Instagram)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-09-01 al 2025-03-31
Social media platforms, like Instagram, allow for a wide range of people – including those outside traditional activist circles – to create or engage with feminist content within quotidian social media practices, with political content co-existing with personal, mundane, or aesthetically-oriented content. This project will explore how online feminist practices take shape in increasingly popular yet under-researched practices of ephemeral social media by focusing on Instagram Stories, exploring the new dynamics these carry.
This project explores the under-studied local context of Portugal. Portugal is experiencing a moment of political polarisation, which is reflected in its social media landscape. Feminist and political discourses are common on Instagram yet often met with backlash from conservative or right-wing voices. This is a rich and novel site for the analysis of these dynamics, revealing local particularities that are absent from Anglo-Saxon contexts.
This project addresses three research objectives: analyse how feminisms are expressed through ephemeral social media affordances; explore what conventions and concerns underly the creation of feminist content; and examine how audiences engage with feminisms on Instagram. This project proposes an ethics-driven, multi-methodological approach. It combines qualitative strategies with the use of digital tools for an exploratory analysis of feminist Instagram Stories; in-depth interviews with feminist content-creators; and focus groups with social media users who engage with feminist content on Instagram.
This project explores the under-studied local context of Portugal. Portugal is experiencing a moment of political polarisation, which is reflected in its social media landscape. Feminist and political discourses are common on Instagram yet often met with backlash from conservative or right-wing voices. This is a rich and novel site for the analysis of these dynamics, revealing local particularities that are absent from Anglo-Saxon contexts.
This project addresses three research objectives: analyse how feminisms are expressed through ephemeral social media affordances; explore what conventions and concerns underly the creation of feminist content; and examine how audiences engage with feminisms on Instagram. This project proposes an ethics-driven, multi-methodological approach. It combines qualitative strategies with the use of digital tools for an exploratory analysis of feminist Instagram Stories; in-depth interviews with feminist content-creators; and focus groups with social media users who engage with feminist content on Instagram.
The work on the EPH-FEM-PI project was conducted by Dr. Sofia P. Caldeira within the Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, between 2022 and 2025.
During the fellowship, Sofia P. Caldeira worked on the three empirical work packages originally outlined in the project proposal:
WP1) the exploratory analysis of Portuguese feminist Instagram Stories;
WP2) the participant observation and in-depth interviews with content-creators who share feminist content;
and WP3) focus groups with a diverse range of social media users who engage with feminist content on Instagram.
These work packages have generated extensive empirical data, drawing on the analysis of 2822 Instagram Stories (WP1), 18 in-depth interviews with feminist content creators (WP2), and 8 focus groups with 46 participants who consume feminist content on Instagram (WP3).
In addition to this work, Sofia P. Caldeira has also conducted additional research on the relationship between digital feminisms and practices of digital disconnection, as well as on broader issues on the politics of gendered practices on social media.
During the course of the fellowship, this work has resulted in the publication of 6 peer-reviewed articles and 16 presentations in national and international academic conferences.
In addition, a 3-day international conference entitled Contested Visibilities: Everyday Politics and Online Imaginaries of the Body,” was organised in the context of the project – in collaboration with three ECREA sections: Digital Culture and Communication (DCC), Gender, Sexuality and Communication (GSC) and Visual Cultures (VC).
This results from this work will continue to be explored in the future. At the time of writing, there are 3 articles under-review in key peer-reviewed journals, 2 abstracts accepted for presentation in international conferences, and 2 other conference abstracts under-review.
During the fellowship, Sofia P. Caldeira worked on the three empirical work packages originally outlined in the project proposal:
WP1) the exploratory analysis of Portuguese feminist Instagram Stories;
WP2) the participant observation and in-depth interviews with content-creators who share feminist content;
and WP3) focus groups with a diverse range of social media users who engage with feminist content on Instagram.
These work packages have generated extensive empirical data, drawing on the analysis of 2822 Instagram Stories (WP1), 18 in-depth interviews with feminist content creators (WP2), and 8 focus groups with 46 participants who consume feminist content on Instagram (WP3).
In addition to this work, Sofia P. Caldeira has also conducted additional research on the relationship between digital feminisms and practices of digital disconnection, as well as on broader issues on the politics of gendered practices on social media.
During the course of the fellowship, this work has resulted in the publication of 6 peer-reviewed articles and 16 presentations in national and international academic conferences.
In addition, a 3-day international conference entitled Contested Visibilities: Everyday Politics and Online Imaginaries of the Body,” was organised in the context of the project – in collaboration with three ECREA sections: Digital Culture and Communication (DCC), Gender, Sexuality and Communication (GSC) and Visual Cultures (VC).
This results from this work will continue to be explored in the future. At the time of writing, there are 3 articles under-review in key peer-reviewed journals, 2 abstracts accepted for presentation in international conferences, and 2 other conference abstracts under-review.
This work has successfully contributed to expand feminist media studies scholarship on two key levels. Firstly, by empirically exploring Instagram Stories as a site for feminist practices – engaging with an increasingly popular digital format that was still under studied from a political lens. Addressing feminist practices that exist outside the scope of highly visible movements or coordinated action, this project builds on the scholarship on everyday feminisms which is key to understand small acts of political engagement that are familiar to ordinary social media users yet often dismissed. Secondly, by contributing to the study of feminist practices in the Portuguese context – building a strong scholarly basis to understand the current context of increased political polarisation.
The novel contribution of this work has been recognised through its publication in both key journals, such as New Media & Society, and in emerging journals, like Platforms & Society, placing it in an important and lively scholarly debate.
This work has also offered methodological contributions to the field of feminist media studies, by critically exploring possibilities of combining qualitative and digital methods. This has been reflected in the publication of a methodological article entitled “Exploring feminisms on Instagram: Reflections on the challenges and possibilities of incorporating digital methods strategies in feminist social media research” on the open-access Journal
of Digital Social Research.
The novel contribution of this work has been recognised through its publication in both key journals, such as New Media & Society, and in emerging journals, like Platforms & Society, placing it in an important and lively scholarly debate.
This work has also offered methodological contributions to the field of feminist media studies, by critically exploring possibilities of combining qualitative and digital methods. This has been reflected in the publication of a methodological article entitled “Exploring feminisms on Instagram: Reflections on the challenges and possibilities of incorporating digital methods strategies in feminist social media research” on the open-access Journal
of Digital Social Research.