Hot-wiring community

ABSTRACT In response to the \u27digital divide\u27, national and local governments in the UK, the US and Australia have embarked on various initiatives designed to promote the use of computer networks in low-income communities. These initiatives involve common models of self-help and mutual obligation; the pattern is one where government provides seed funding to encourage public-private partnerships between disadvantaged communities, businesses, philanthropists and universities. Together they rig up a solution to information poverty, giving people access to information technologies in their homes. The idea is that people will be better able to share resources, find work, acquire qualifications, help themselves and trust one another. Already, however, the reality has fallen short of expectations. It taken a long time for technical experimentation to find success; often, meanwhile, the public-private partnership model has broken down. More importantly for broader social policy discussion, there is a prevailing confusion about whether the focus should be on employment, education and training outcomes, or on more diffuse ideas about social cohesion. This paper reviews international examples of success and failure in building wired communities, putting the case for a stronger focus on selfeducation, informal learning and employment outcomes rather than on community-building and social cohesion

Youthworx media: youth media and social enterprise as intervention and innovation

This research explores the impact of Youthworx, a community-based cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. Preface Youthworx is a successful model of a practical, community-based, cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. It combines professional expertise, networks and material resources across social service delivery agencies (Salvation Army and Youth Development Australia (YDA)), youth-run community media (SYN Media), an educational provider (North Melbourne Institute of Technology TAFE (NMIT)) and research organisations (the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research (SISR)). Media training and production is used to build capacity to re-engage with learning, education and employment. After some years in development between 2008, when Youthworx effectively began operations, and 2013, the program has provided open access multimedia workshops, accredited training and, more recently, paid traineeships for more than 400 youth disconnected from formal learning, with experience of homelessness, juvenile justice or alcohol and drug abuse. Participants broadcast and distribute their works through SYN Media, local festivals and screenings, as well as online. They also make commissioned creative products for external clients and not-for-profit organisations. Research undertaken by Swinburne University’s SISR between 2005 and 2013 explored impact of Youthworx on these young people and the broader lessons for debates on social innovation, community media and creative economies, informal learning, opportunity and enterprise. The integrated R&D is a unique element of Youthworx, allowing documentation, analysis and capacity-building. It combined longitudinal on-site research, a comparative study of best practices across parallel international youth media initiatives, and mobilisation of established academic and industry networks. Although our findings to date have appeared in a range of publications, this document offers the first comprehensive report on the project. It discusses the development of Youthworx and the results of the 2008-13 period. The presented findings draw on a qualitative fieldwork at Youthworx and semistructured follow-up interviews with a group of Youthworx graduates who participated in the program between 2009-2011. In combination, this material is used to document and explore the specific institutional structure and cultural context in which Youthworx’s media training and production took place, the ways in which young people experienced, engaged with and valued the project, as well as the project’s social outcomes. The longitudinal account of Youthworx presented here integrates and summarises multiple voices, including industry partners, service organisations, practitioners, researchers and, importantly, young people themselves. It reflects arguments developed across the team, including material previously published

Increasing public participation in government initiatives

Abstract not available

Risk, skills and redemption: the Youthworx initiative in development

Abstract not available

Civic crusaders and civil peace

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Marginalised youth can make community media: but when they leave, what are we left with?

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Wired community: neighbourhoods, networks and communities of interest

The idea of the \u27information society\u27 has taken hold in sociological and political analysis. Information technology, it is argued, is forming new virtual and actual networks that make up communities, both local and global. Computer networks are capable of transcending national boundaries, as information and communications is shared globally; they are also capable of redefining them, as they mark out new locations and regions, a new sense of place. Stubbornly, however, the problem of the digital divide has remained; as information and services are provided in ways that require increasingly fast and sophisticated tools and navigational skills, those on low incomes, in isolated areas and with less education are less able to access the resources, services and information they need