Sticht the dress and the web: young women, fashion and digital economies in Yaounde, Cameroon

我的研究重点是新媒体技术如何影响社会中的性别不平等，以及手机摄像头的使用如何改变喀麦隆年轻女性的未来愿望和工作机会。在我的博士学位期间，我与首都雅温得社会经济背景较低的年轻女性共事，她们就读或完成了大学教育，但不是在新技术领域。我参与了参与者的观察，并就手机的使用情况，特别是他们的相机，与他们未来的抱负和工作前景进行了访谈。这项研究显示，年轻女性认为自己的未来与她们用手机摄像头拍摄的图像、广告和模特密切相关，尤其是在时尚领域，而不是渴望在她们所研究的领域工作。我的研究表明，新媒体技术如何改变获得生产性工作的性别不平等。通过展示和分享她们着装风格的图像，年轻女性展示了她们的技能，并在她们想要的领域找到了工作机会。在一个老年官僚和父权制社会中，年轻妇女通过规避对社会流动途径所经过的父系网络的依赖，改变了她们的经济地位。他们利用新媒体技术作为形象和风格的传播渠道，建立了母系网络。国际媒体和商业投资预测证实了这一现象，并将非洲时尚列为2022年最值得关注的五大领域之一。然而，尽管有关非洲女性时尚品牌在数字经济中崛起的中介成功故事在国际上流传，但在当地运营的小规模举措的基础并不稳固。除其他因素外，这种早熟现象是由于缺乏体制支持：经济、基础设施和促进援助，这些援助可以弥补婚姻关系网络的不稳定。我的研究表明，有必要传播对小规模倡议及其挑战的认识，并建立政策计划，支持这一新领域的年轻女性。在研究员期间，我将发表两篇学术文章，试图影响关于非洲时尚和性别的学术辩论。我还将组织一次研讨会，向喀麦隆和其他地方的观众传播我的研究成果。这一国际研讨会的重点将是通过数字技术改变非洲时尚，以及这种改变对当地女性经济的影响。研讨会将邀请我研究的跨学科学者、政策制定者和时尚从业者参加，并将向公众开放。它将与Felicite Djoukouo博士共同运营，并由国家博物馆(雅温得)主办，国家妇女赋权部、教科文组织和妇女署参与其中。我将结合即将在V&A博物馆举办的关于非洲时尚的展览来组织研讨会，允许远程在线参与。研讨会的目的是分享知识，提高人们对数字经济为年轻女性带来的可能性和挑战的认识，并制定出将她们的早产转化为稳定的收入来源的方法。研讨会的成果将有三个方面。首先，通过强调当地的倡议和性别经济，研讨会将向V&A博物馆的观众介绍非洲时尚缺失的视角。其次，它将产生一本集视觉艺术和学术界于一身的出版物，将催生关于非洲时尚和女性数字经济的新辩论。第三，讲习班成果将转化为关于通过数字方式的伙伴关系支持赋予妇女权力的政策简报。这将在改变来自较低社会经济背景的年轻女性的经济地位方面发挥强大的作用。

My research focuses on how new media technologies influence gender inequalities in society, and how access to mobile phone cameras changed young Cameroonian women's future aspirations and work opportunities. During my doctorate, I worked with young women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in the capital city, Yaoundé, who were enrolled in or had completed university education, but not in the field of new technologies. I engaged in participant observation and interviewed them about the use of mobile phones, particularly their cameras, in relation to their future aspirations and work prospects. This research revealed that rather than aspiring to work in the areas they studied, young women see their futures as intimately tied to images they make with their phone cameras, in advertising and modelling, and especially in fashion.My research shows how new media technologies can alter gender inequalities in access to productive work. By displaying and sharing the images of their dress styles, young women manifest their skills and find work opportunities in their desired areas. Young women change their economic position in a gerontocratic and patriarchal society by circumventing dependence on patrimonial networks through which paths of social mobility run. Using new media technologies as channels of distribution for their images and styles, they build matronage networks. Testifying to this phenomenon, international media and business investment forecasts have highlighted African fashion as one of the top five areas to look out for in 2022. Yet even as mediatised success stories about the emergence of female African fashion brands in digital economies circulate internationally, small-scale initiatives operating locally are on precarious ground. This precarity owes, amongst other factors, to a lack of institutional support: the economic, infrastructural and promotion assistance that could compensate for the instability of matronage networks. My research shows the need to spread awareness about small-scale initiatives and their challenges, and to establish policy schemes to support young women in this new sector.During the fellowship, I will publish two academic articles that seek to influence scholarly debates on African fashion and gender. I will also organise a workshop to disseminate my research findings to audiences in Cameroon and beyond. This international workshop will focus on the transformation of African fashion through digital technologies and the impacts of this change on local female economies. The workshop will engage interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers and fashion practitioners from my research, and will be open to the public. It will be co-run with Dr Felicite Djoukouo, and hosted by the National Museum (Yaoundé), with participation by the National Ministry for Women's Empowerment, UNESCO and UN Women. I will organize the workshop in conjunction with a forthcoming exhibition at the V&A Museum on African fashion, allowing for remote online participation. The aim of the workshop will be to share knowledge and generate awareness about possibilities and challenges that digital economies in fashion create for young women, and map out ways to transform their precarity into stable sources of income.The outcomes of the workshop will be threefold. First, by highlighting local initiatives and their gendered economies, the workshop will introduce a missing perspective on African fashion for V&A Museum audiences. Second, it will result in a publication at the intersection of visual arts and academia, which will foster new debates on African fashion and female digital economies. Third, the workshop outcomes will be translated into a policy briefing on supporting female empowerment through partnerships in digital fashion. This will have a powerful role in altering the economic position of young women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.