Kerry Mallan - Böcker

Digital Participation through Social Living Labs connects two largely separate debates: On the one hand, high speed internet access and associated technologies are often heralded as a means to bring about not only connectivity, but also innovation, economic development, new jobs, and regional prosperity. On the other hand, community development research has established that access by itself is necessary but not sufficient to foster digital participation for the broadest possible range of individuals.

Edited by leading scholars from the fields of education, youth studies, urban informatics, librarianship, communication technology, and digital media studies, this book is positioned as a link to connect these debates. It brings together an international collection of empirically grounded case studies by researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. They advance knowledge that fosters digital participation by identifying the specific digital needs, issues and practices of different types of communities as they seek to take advantage of access to digital technologies. Collectively, these cases propose new ways for enabling residents to develop their digital confidence and skills both at home and in their local community, particularly through a 'social living labs' approach. The book is organised around key focus areas: digital skills enhancement, youth entrepreneurship, connected learning, community digital storytelling, community-led digital initiatives and policy development.

Highlights that high speed internet is necessary that high speed internet access is necessary but not sufficient to resolve digital divides and foster social inclusion; Brings together international, empirically grounded case studies to identify digital needs, issues and practices of different communities, and contextualises these with expert comment; Presents contributions from multiple disciplines, with most chapters incorporating more than one disciplinary background; Gives insight on the place of the digital in contemporary society; Illustrates the innovative potential of social living labs to foster digital learning and participation in a variety of community contexts.

Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this book argues for the significance of theory for reading texts written and produced for young people. Integrating perspectives from across feminism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism, it demonstrates how these inform approaches to a range of contemporary literature and film.

Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this book argues for the significance of theory for reading texts written and produced for young people. Integrating perspectives from across feminism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism, it demonstrates how these inform approaches to a range of contemporary literature and film.

By examining the cultural spaces occupied by youth—spaces represented in texts produced for youth, about youth, and in some cases by youth—contributors to this volume present challenging ways of applying critical ideas and theoretical frameworks to the crucial issues that surround youth and the cultures they inhabit as evidenced in their literature, magazines, computer games, films, television programs, popular music, and fashion. Many of the writers in this unique new collection write from provocative standpoints drawing on film and feminist theory, psychoanalytic criticism, semiotics, and literary theory, providing useful ways of thinking about the issues, texts, and practices that circulate within youth cultures, indicating their underlying tensions and contradictions.Providing a cross-cultural analysis of these texts, Youth Cultures provides scope for a wide readership open to unorthodox readings and bold interpretations. Many of the writers in this unique new collection write from provocative standpoints drawing on film and feminist theory, psychoanalytic criticism, semiotics, and literary theory, providing useful ways of thinking about the issues, texts, and practices that circulate within youth cultures, indicating their underlying tensions and contradictions.

This publication was the outcome of a research project undertaken by a team of researchers from Queensland University of Technology and Brisbane Catholic Education Office throughout 1999-2000. The report was originally distributed to a limited number of participants and others considered stakeholders in the fields of education and teacher-librarianship. The publication of the report reflects the interest shown in the project around Australia. The research focused on the impact of new technologies on the day-to-day lives of teacher-librarians, and revealed information that has significant relevance for the training, professional development and infrastructure support for teacher-librarianship. This research is significant as it provides a sound and scholarly approach to the research topic and provides the field and others associated with schooling and teacher-librarianship with documented accounts of the contributions of teacher-librarians, the obstacles they face, and the way technology is affecting their personal and professional lives.Performing Hybridity would be of interest to the teacher-librarianship and general education community. The results of the research are not state or site specific and are applicable to other states in Australia. It is important for administrators and policy makers in state, catholic and independent systems as an information source for staff planning and development, and resourcing. The publication also has value for tertiary institutions offering courses in teacher-librarianship and more general librarianship programs.

(Re)Imagining the world: Children’s Literature’s Response to Changing Times considers how writers of fiction for children imagine ‘the world’, not one universal world, but different worlds: imaginary, strange, familiar, even monstrous worlds. The chapters in this collection discuss how fiction for children engages with some of the changes brought about by new technologies, information literacy, consumerism, migration, politics, different family structures, cosmopolitanism, new and old monsters.  They also invite us to think about how memory shapes our understanding of the past, and how fiction engages our emotions, our capacity to empathise, and our desire to discover, and what the future may hold. The contributors bring different perspectives from education, postcolonial studies, literary criticism, cultural studies, childhood studies, postmodernism, and the social sciences. With a wide coverage of texts from different countries, and scholarly and lively discussions, this collection is itself a testament to the power of the human imagination and the significance of children’s literature in the education of young people. ​