PhD ThesisThis research presents empirical work which grounds the discourses of socially inclusive
'communities' in a 'global information society'. The empirical work focuses on a specific group
of young people aged 11 to 25 living in one of the most ethnically diverse and poorest
boroughs of London, Newham. The thesis explores the ways in which the group construct
their 'online' community (Newham Young People Online) and how their identities as young
people are re-produced through the interplay between their everyday and their technocultural
lifeworlds. Key to the work is how the group is using and shaping ICTs and cyberspace(s),
which are central to a 'global information society', in different ways: to explore creativity, to find
diverse ways of self-expression, to understand 'difference' and to discover other spaces of
learning and education against a background of social exclusion
