Young People, Consumer Citizenship and Protest: The Problem with Romanticizing the Relationship to Social Change

This article critically interrogates the assumption that young people operate at the ‘cutting edge’ of social change. Arguing that the ideological impact of consumption on young people’s everyday lives is such that young people are almost obliged to reinforce the status quo rather than to undermine it, the article considers the impact of young people’s status as consumer citizens. Using the London riots of 2011 riots as a means of briefly reflecting upon the degree to which young people are in opposition to the consumer society, the argument is made that youth researchers have tended to romanticize young people’s relationship to social change and that this is the result of their own sense of political disillusionment in what is essentially a consumer society

Traditional knowledge and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library: Digital quandaries and other concerns

This article explores issues related to the digitization of traditional knowledge. Using the example of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) in India, it (1) explores the interfaces between the TKDL and the digital, (2) problematizes the relationship between the TKDL, power and digital knowledge, (3) raises issues around traditional knowledge (TK) and dominant traditions of intellectual property (IP) and (4) explores the status of reinvented traditions in relation to TK. While the article includes an immanent critique of the politics of the digital in relation to the TKDL, it supports the view that the digital can play a significant role in the preservation, elucidation and strengthening of traditional/ indigenous cultures