The key objective of this research is to learn more about how young people use digital spaces and particularly how their engagement in the digital space connects with social mobility and equality. In addition, the study seeks to ask how digital engagement can be enriched through creative and cultural production.

This study investigates inequity in relation to youth engagement with digital and global literacies, in order to examine assumptions about digital natives, to expose differentials that will enhance achievement for young people, and to value both digital and non-digital practices. We now know that the actual use of digital technologies and the actual engagement in cultural production is heavily determined by socio-economic status. For example, low-income young people are more likely to be digital consumers and higher income youth to be digital producers. This study is an investigation into the digital cultural engagement of two samples of young people in two different cities: in Hamilton, Ontario and in Glasgow, Scotland.

Co-PI’s: Dr Mia Perry and Dr Diane Collier, Brock University, Ontario, Canada

Start and End Date: Sept. 2016 – Sept. 2018

Funder and funding amount: The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC); $65,000CND