IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tbitxx/v43y2024i9p1699-1711.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

RLabs Youth Cafés and the Zlto Exchange system

Author

Listed:
  • Jörn Christiansson

Abstract

This article presents a study of a youth café initiative for skills training in South Africa where a reward system with community currency (the ZE system) is implemented on smartphones to promote personal development and prepare youth for the job market in socially challenged communities. The youth receive currency in exchange for taking part in skills training and community work that can be spent on services and consumables in the local community. This study assesses the qualitative performance of the ZE system and youth café operation, through an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with youth café visitors and staff. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens, the analysis focuses on how the youth café operation supports motivation for personal development. Results indicate that the youth cafés provide a platform for developing self-determination and promoting personal development. However, this is not a result from the ZE system alone, but rather from how it is embedded in the supportive environment of the youth cafés, as well as the integration of the youth café operation in the local communities. In conclusion, the youth café operation, with its digital reward system, may be viewed as an example of an empowering socio-technology for development.

Suggested Citation

  • Jörn Christiansson, 2024. "RLabs Youth Cafés and the Zlto Exchange system," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(9), pages 1699-1711, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:43:y:2024:i:9:p:1699-1711
    DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2023.2263089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2263089
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2263089?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:43:y:2024:i:9:p:1699-1711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tbit .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.