Youth Techtual Economies: The Paradox and Purchase of Equity

Abstract

This chapter utilizes a cultural sociological lens towards economy to describe and explore youth techtual economies and the purchase/paradox of educational equity. Reading the inclusion and purchase of technology as text, techtual economies detail and nuance the larger contexts of culture, relational social ties, and institutional structures. Taking heed of the ways in which people differentiate media, money and moments of transaction, I consider youth techtual counter-economies and interrogate why these spaces of socialization and affinity (i.e., social networking spaces, microblogs, etc.) are silenced rather than drawn upon. In reading the array of techtual economies included, this chapter moves beyond reading economy solely in terms of monetary means. Instead, it illuminates how rituals, practices, and the so-called figured worlds of school and technology monetize the purchase of equity.