Young People in Digital Society

Amanda Third is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Australia.Philippa Collin is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Australia.Lucas Walsh is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia.Rosalyn Black is Senior Lecturer in Education at Deakin University, Australia.

This book adopts a critical youth studies approach and theorizes the digital as a key feature of the everyday to analyse how ideas about youth and cyber-safety, digital inclusion and citizenship are mobilized. Despite a growing interest in the benefits and opportunities for young people online, both 'young people' and 'the digital' continue to be constructed primarily as sites of social and cultural anxiety requiring containment and control. Juxtaposing public policy, popular educational and parental framings of young people's digital practices with the insights from fieldwork conducted with young Australians aged 12-25, the book highlights the generative possibilities of attending to intergenerational tensions. In doing so, the authors show how a shift beyond the paradigm of control opens up towards a deeper understanding of the capacities that are generated in and through digital life for young and old alike. Young People in Digital Society will be of interest to scholars and students in youth studies, cultural studies, sociology, education, and media and communications.

Draws on qualitative research with young people

1. Introduction.- 2. Contesting Control: Key Concepts.- 3. Online Safety.- 4. Digital Inclusion.- 5. Digital Citizenship.- 6. Conclusions.