New Book Series: ‘Connected Youth and Digital Futures’ | DML Central (DML= Digital Media and Learning)

"Building on research supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative, a new series “Connected Youth and Digital Futures,” is debuting its first two books — By Any Media Necessary: The New Activism of American Youth and The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age." inform Julian Sefton-Green, independent scholar working in Education and the Cultural and Creative Industries.

Photo: Julian Sefton-Green

Julian Sefton-Green is currently Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Media & Communication, London School of Economics, and a research associate at the University of Oslo working on projects in London and Oslo exploring learning and learner identity across formal and informal domains. He is an Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK and the Institute of Education, Hong Kong. 

This series offers books that describe the ways that the day-to-day lives and futures of young people are being reconfigured at the intersection of civil and political reform, transformation in employment and education and the penetration of digital technologies across all domains of social and personal life.

Why a new book series?

We live in divisive and divided times where the futures that young people may inherit appear more fraught than in previous generations. As Western societies have become increasingly marketized, older forms of social contract — of conformity, working hard and aspiring high — can no longer fullfil the promises they appeared to offer. Access to employment, housing and independent living has become increasingly competitive, and generations are being lost from participation in conventional forms of civic activity and political action. Social life is increasingly mediated through forms of digital technology and the interpersonal and day-to-day life in neighborhoods and communities have become increasingly surveilled and automated. Traditional state institutions like schools and colleges seem more peripheral and excluding; and life pathways confused, complex and competitive. Forms of social stratification seem to have become more acute as elites have reasserted their power and privilege. All of these changes call into question the nature and purpose of learning in these uncertain times.

Whilst debates about many of these themes have been around for some time, they are frequently encountered as forms of abstraction and hypothesis. The hallmark of this series will be rigorous and accessible empirical research that engages with complex theory in new and generative ways. Many of the claims advanced for the digital are now being tested around the world as institutions and young people themselves negotiate, incorporate or transform in response to these changing possibilities. This series will play a key role in understanding this “second generation” debate and research.

Key themes include:

• the relationship between new forms of “institution” as the traditional “places” of education, community, civics and employment transform and morph into virtual practices;
• the agency of young people themselves as they seek to make sense of the disjuncture between expectations about the future and the opportunities afforded by these new spaces; and
• the changing nature of learning processes, spaces and places and the spread of informal education.

The original project of cultural studies placed youth and education at the center of its ambition as it began the process of theorizing the work of power, resistance and social change. This series will address these concerns with original studies and responsive theories capable of making sense of the new routes and trajectories being explored by young people themselves.
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Related link
Take a closer look at his personal blog www.julianseftongreen.net.

Source: DML Central (DML= Digital Media and Learning)