Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana

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Invisible Users Acting with Technology Bonnie Nardi, Victor Kaptelinin, and Kirsten Foot, editors Tracing Genres through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information Design, Clay Spinuzzi, 2003 Activity-Centered Design: An Ecological Approach to Designing Smart Tools and Usable Systems, Geri Gay and Helene Hembrooke, 2004 The Semiotic Engineering of Human Computer Interaction, Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, 2005 Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge, Gerry Stahl, 2006 Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design, Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie A. Nardi, 2006 Web Campaigning, Kirsten A. Foot and Steven M. Schneider, 2006 Scientific Collaboration on the Internet, Gary M. Olson, Ann Zimmerman, and Nathan Bos, editors, 2008 Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design, Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie A. Nardi, 2009 Digitally Enabled Social Change: Online and Offline Activism in the Age of the Internet, Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport, 2011 Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana, Jenna Burrell, 2012 Invisible Users Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana Jenna Burrell The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email special_sales@mitpress.mit.edu or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Burrell, Jenna, 1978– Invisible users : youth in the Internet cafés of urban Ghana / Jenna Burrell. p. cm. — (Acting with technology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01736-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Internet and teenagers—Ghana. 2. Cybercafes—Ghana. 3. Technology and youth—Ghana. 4. Online social networks—Ghana. I. Title. HQ799.2.I5.B87 2012 004.67′8083509667—dc23 2011039761 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Kiyo, for everything ...