Globalization, the Economy of Desire, and Cybersexual Activity Among Ghanaian Youth

Abstract

Wisdom J. Tettey continues the gendered examination of globalization in Africa in a case study of cybersexual activity among youth in Ghana in Globalization, the Economy of Desire, and Cybersexual Activity among Ghanaian Youth. In this rich study, Tettey shows how globalization and the accompanying information-technology innovations have created a transnational space of Internet-related sex and sexuality that, when placed in a country with shrinking economic possibilities because of neoliberal regimes imposed since the 1980s, has facilitated ethnosexual consumption through racial, gendered, and national self-imaginations, reproducing patterns of domination and inequality within Ghana and the larger global system. Tetteyi?½s paper offers substantive insight into the allure and dangers to Ghanaian youth of Internet-based sexual liaisons and other forms of sex work during a period of deepening economic crisis and rise in sex-tourism. It also makes important contributions to the literature on the political economy of desire by examining the gendered, racialized, and accumulation effects of the intertwining of global forces, technological advances, and national political economic processes.