S. Craig Watkins – författare

This is an examination of two episodes in the recent history of black film - the ascendancy of Spike Lee and the proliferation of "hood" films such as "Boyz N the Hood" and "Menace II Society". This text argues that black youth have become targets of a fierce racial backlash against crime, drugs, affirmative action and rap music. It sets out to explain the increased visibility and commercial viability of African-American filmmaking, showing that the black film wave was driven by several factors - the transformation of the popular film industry; a reinvigorated independent filmmaking niche; the cross-marketing of music, video and film; a burgeoning of hip hop consumer culture; and historically specific struggles over the meanings and representation of "blackness" in America. The book contends that despite the social and economic marginalization of black youth, they have gained unprecedented access to the popular media and have been remarkably resilient in cultivating practices which influence not only black popular culture, but the broader US popular culture scene.

In this text, S. Craig Watkins examines two of the important developments in the recent history of black cinema - the ascendancy of Spike Lee and the proliferation of "ghettocentric films". The work explores a distinct contradiction in American society - at the same time that black youth have become the targets of a fierce racial backlash, their popular expressive cultures have become highly visible and commercially viable.

Exploring how formal and informal education initiatives and training systems in the US, UK and Australia seek to achieve a socially diverse workforce, this insightful book offers a series of detailed case studies to reveal the initiative and ingenuity shown by today’s young people as they navigate entry into creative fields of work.Young People’s Journeys into Creative Work acknowledges the new and diverse challenges faced by today's youth as they look to enter employment. Chapters trace the rise of indie work, aspirational labour, economic precarity, and the disruptive effects of digital technologies, to illustrate the oinventive ways in which youth from varied socio-economic and cultural backgrounds enter into work in film, games production, music, and the visual arts. From hip-hop to new media arts, the text explores how opportunities for creative work have multiplied in recent years as digital technologies open new markets, new scenes, and new opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovation. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of youth studies, careers guidance, media studies, vocational education and sociology of education.

Exploring how formal and informal education initiatives and training systems in the US, UK and Australia seek to achieve a socially diverse workforce, this insightful book offers a series of detailed case studies to reveal the initiative and ingenuity shown by today’s young people as they navigate entry into creative fields of work.Young People’s Journeys into Creative Work acknowledges the new and diverse challenges faced by today's youth as they look to enter employment. Chapters trace the rise of indie work, aspirational labour, economic precarity, and the disruptive effects of digital technologies, to illustrate the oinventive ways in which youth from varied socio-economic and cultural backgrounds enter into work in film, games production, music, and the visual arts. From hip-hop to new media arts, the text explores how opportunities for creative work have multiplied in recent years as digital technologies open new markets, new scenes, and new opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovation. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of youth studies, careers guidance, media studies, vocational education and sociology of education.

How black and Latino youth learn, create, and collaborate onlineThe Digital Edge examines how the digital and social-media lives of low-income youth, especially youth of color, have evolved amidst rapid social and technological change. While notions of the digital divide between the "technology rich" and the "technology poor" have largely focused on access to new media technologies, the contours of the digital divide have grown increasingly complex. Analyzing data from a year‐long ethnographic study at Freeway High School, the authors investigate how the digital media ecologies and practices of black and Latino youth have adapted as a result of the wider diffusion of the internet all around us--in homes, at school, and in the palm of our hands. Their eager adoption of different technologies forge new possibilities for learning and creating that recognize the collective power of youth: peer networks, inventive uses of technology, and impassioned interests that are remaking the digital world.Relying on nearly three hundred in-depth interviews with students, teachers, and parents, and hundreds of hours of observation in technology classes and after school programs, The Digital Edge carefully documents some of the emergent challenges for creating a more equitable digital and educational future. Focusing on the complex interactions between race, class, gender, geography and social inequality, the book explores the educational perils and possibilities of the expansion of digital media into the lives and learning environments of low-income youth. Ultimately, the book addresses how schools can support the ability of students to develop the social, technological, and educational skills required to navigate twenty-first century life.