Queering the ‘resourcing’ of LGBTQ+ young people in the Asia Pacific

TY - JOUR

T1 - Queering the ‘resourcing’ of LGBTQ+ young people in the Asia Pacific

AU - Cheong, Niki

AU - Johns, Amelia

AU - Byron, Paul

N1 - Funding Information: As added reflection, the research projects discussed were funded by Global North institutions (our universities) and international aid/humanitarian organisations. And while this, and our positionalities as researchers working in the Global North, implicate us in the very neo-colonial logic we critique, there are elements of fluidity – and cultural flows – at play, which (queer) Asia as method reminds us. From author 1’s Malaysian heritage and acquired knowledge of the productive and limiting role of Western ‘resourcing’, to the insights gained by Global North scholars adapting their own frameworks by learning from participants, to learning from scholars who ‘queer’ and disrupt straightforward understandings of aid, development, and resourcing – this has influenced the positions of these projects, and helped us acknowledge how the recommendations we’re proposing can also help us become better researchers. Funding Information: Project 2, which was reported in this paper, was funded by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok. We acknowledge and thank research participants for their generosity in sharing their knowledge and experiences with the research teams. We thank Hendri Yulius Wijaya and Numan Afifi as co-researchers for part of the research reported on in this paper, and Jenelle Babb (UNESCO) and Honey Lister (UNDP) for their support throughout the research process. Thanks also to participants at AoIR Dublin (2022) who gave feedback on an earlier version of this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2023/8/28

Y1 - 2023/8/28

N2 - Scholars have long been critical of development agendas where Global North organisations develop aid programmes and resources to address inequalities in the Global South, which tend to reflect Western values, frameworks, and identity. Critical response can be seen in current calls for decolonising the ‘resourcing’ of LGBTQ+ young people in the Global South. Drawing from the postcolonial lenses of ‘Asia as Method’ and a reorienting of that paradigm through ‘queer Asia as method’, we argue for ‘queering’ approaches to digitally resourcing LGBTQ+ young people in the region by centring the knowledge of local communities. This paper is informed by findings from two research projects involving digital resources on young people’s digital citizenship, safety, literacy and participation, and the lived experiences of respondents from 10 countries across the Asia Pacific.

AB - Scholars have long been critical of development agendas where Global North organisations develop aid programmes and resources to address inequalities in the Global South, which tend to reflect Western values, frameworks, and identity. Critical response can be seen in current calls for decolonising the ‘resourcing’ of LGBTQ+ young people in the Global South. Drawing from the postcolonial lenses of ‘Asia as Method’ and a reorienting of that paradigm through ‘queer Asia as method’, we argue for ‘queering’ approaches to digitally resourcing LGBTQ+ young people in the region by centring the knowledge of local communities. This paper is informed by findings from two research projects involving digital resources on young people’s digital citizenship, safety, literacy and participation, and the lived experiences of respondents from 10 countries across the Asia Pacific.

KW - digital citizenship

KW - Asia Pacific

KW - digital resources

KW - LGBTQ+

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168871891&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2249970

DO - 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2249970

M3 - Article

SN - 1369-118X

VL - 26

SP - 2439

EP - 2456

JO - Information Communication & Society

JF - Information Communication & Society

IS - 12

ER -