The New State: Self-Governance & Self-Expression Through the Exploration of Youth Social Spaces in Today’s Mediated Society

Abstract

“Self-governance” and “self-expression” are tenets that one would hope to find in the standard of any progressive constitution. However, these terms are not presented here as parliamentary rhetoric, but as components of the mission to develop a “city block, creating public space, cultural infrastructure, and economic opportunity, while empowering our youth” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That project is called The New State. By looking at The New State as a conceptual template for youth culture development in the digital age, this study attempts to expand understandings of youth citizenship and how it might affect development of society beyond its physicality. This ethnographic study examines the role of self-governance and self-expression in the creation of youth agency and cultural hubs in both digital and physical space. It further opens up the conversation about how critically intertwined physical and virtual third-spaces can be to the wellbeing of present society and its future practices.