Falling Back Into a Digital Divide: Youth and Art in Public and Digital Spaces

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Access and Voice: Multimodal and Digital Learning

Abstract

From popular culture to policy, young people are imagined as ‘digital natives’ and ‘global citizens.’ Our presentation draws on international research across post-inductrial cities in Scotland and Canada that asked: How digital practices of youth reflect assumptions about access to digital and global mobilities? Theories of mobilities, public pedagogies, and cultural imaginaries inform this arts-based, multi-site, qualitative inquiry. Ontological disconnects revealed themselves between the researchers and the artists, and more profoundly, the adults and the youth. Disrupting our expectations, we found that: a) there was no validity in conceiving of “youth’s digital engagement” as one thing; b) youth were unable to engage with questions differentiating digital from “non-digital” space; and c) they consistently preferred traditional art-making than digital options offered.

Authors

• Diane Collier, Brock University

• Mia Perry, University of Glasgow