Invisible Users : Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana
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| Title: | Invisible Users : Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana |
|---|---|
| Description: | An account of how young people in Ghana's capital city adopt and adapt digital technology in the margins of the global economy.The urban youth frequenting the Internet cafés of Accra, Ghana, who are decidedly not members of their country's elite, use the Internet largely as a way to orchestrate encounters across distance and amass foreign ties—activities once limited to the wealthy, university-educated classes. The Internet, accessed on second-hand computers (castoffs from the United States and Europe), has become for these youths a means of enacting a more cosmopolitan self. In Invisible Users, Jenna Burrell offers a richly observed account of how these Internet enthusiasts have adopted, and adapted to their own priorities, a technological system that was not designed with them in mind.Burrell describes the material space of the urban Internet café and the virtual space of push and pull between young Ghanaians and the foreigners they encounter online; the region's famous 419 scam strategies and the rumors of “big gains” that fuel them; the influential role of churches and theories about how the supernatural operates through the network; and development rhetoric about digital technologies and the future viability of African Internet cafés in the region.Burrell, integrating concepts from science and technology studies and African studies with empirical findings from her own field work in Ghana, captures the interpretive flexibility of technology by users in the margins but also highlights how their invisibility puts limits on their full inclusion into a global network society. |
| Authors: | Jenna Burrell |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Online social networks--Ghana, Internet and teenagers--Ghana, Cybercafes--Ghana, Technology and youth--Ghana |
| Categories: | TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, COMPUTERS / Social Aspects, HISTORY / Africa / West |
| Database: | eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| FullText | Links: – Type: ebook-pdf – Type: ebook-epub Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Invisible Users : Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: An account of how young people in Ghana's capital city adopt and adapt digital technology in the margins of the global economy.The urban youth frequenting the Internet cafés of Accra, Ghana, who are decidedly not members of their country's elite, use the Internet largely as a way to orchestrate encounters across distance and amass foreign ties—activities once limited to the wealthy, university-educated classes. The Internet, accessed on second-hand computers (castoffs from the United States and Europe), has become for these youths a means of enacting a more cosmopolitan self. In Invisible Users, Jenna Burrell offers a richly observed account of how these Internet enthusiasts have adopted, and adapted to their own priorities, a technological system that was not designed with them in mind.Burrell describes the material space of the urban Internet café and the virtual space of push and pull between young Ghanaians and the foreigners they encounter online; the region's famous 419 scam strategies and the rumors of “big gains” that fuel them; the influential role of churches and theories about how the supernatural operates through the network; and development rhetoric about digital technologies and the future viability of African Internet cafés in the region.Burrell, integrating concepts from science and technology studies and African studies with empirical findings from her own field work in Ghana, captures the interpretive flexibility of technology by users in the margins but also highlights how their invisibility puts limits on their full inclusion into a global network society. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jenna+Burrell%22">Jenna Burrell</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Online+social+networks--Ghana%22">Online social networks--Ghana</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Internet+and+teenagers--Ghana%22">Internet and teenagers--Ghana</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cybercafes--Ghana%22">Cybercafes--Ghana</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Technology+and+youth--Ghana%22">Technology and youth--Ghana</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22TECHNOLOGY+%26+ENGINEERING+%2F+Social+Aspects%22">TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22COMPUTERS+%2F+Social+Aspects%22">COMPUTERS / Social Aspects</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Africa+%2F+West%22">HISTORY / Africa / West</searchLink> |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=e000xww&AN=453504 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 004.678083509667 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Online social networks--Ghana Type: general – SubjectFull: Internet and teenagers--Ghana Type: general – SubjectFull: Cybercafes--Ghana Type: general – SubjectFull: Technology and youth--Ghana Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Invisible Users : Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Jenna Burrell – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Jenna Burrell IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2012 – D: 04 M: 02 Type: profile Y: 2014 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780262017367 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780262301459 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780262300681 Titles: – TitleFull: Invisible Users : Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
