Chapter 15 - Vancouver Youthspaces: A Political Economy of Digital Learning Communities

Abstract

This chapter presents a structural account of a youth media production community as a space of social living in the global city. Digital learning communities now impact the culture of cities by territorializing urban spaces in ways that produce cultural friction. I develop this analysis here and address the ways policy, funding structures, technology change, and labour practices have shaped the political economy of community digital learning in Vancouver, Canada. I link this analysis to the rise of neoliberalism and draw on a concept of neoliberal governmentality to situate the work of policy and organizations in Vancouver. Digital learning organizations are part of a global mode of informal cultural production often organized around nonprofits and nonmarket forms of media creation that are shaping the civic conditions that define youthful cities. In this chapter, I explore the tensions and possibilities that shape this field.