MOBILE ACTIVISM AND PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC INSPIRATIONS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON iOS APP MAKING WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS Joseph D. Hooper A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in the School of Education (Cultural Studies and Literacies) Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: James Trier Cheryl Mason Bolick Sherick Hughes George Noblit Mark Olson © 2020 Joseph D. Hooper ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Joseph D. Hooper: Mobile Activism and Psychogeographic Inspirations: A Qualitative Study on iOS App Making with College Students (Under the direction James Trier) A significant portion of scholarly literature explores the ways that youth activists (aged 15-24 years old) appropriate mobile apps—compact software designed and developed to run on a smartphone or tablet—to address social issues. However, there is a paucity of research literature that reveals the ways that they engage in the production of socially useful mobile apps. As a way to address the lack of research on this area of mobile app making, this project draws on a participatory media research design to explore the experience of co-producing an iOS mobile phone app with college students working toward social change in their campus community. The project collects qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and design artifacts. The data is analyzed using the Situationist International’s concept of psychogeography, which ordinarily focuses on place-based investigations. As a means of analysis, psychogeography facilitates a creative method of moving throughout the data corpus while mapping recurring patterns, themes, and ideas that relate to the production of app making with participants. The findings in this study are marked by a disruptive event that caused the project to rupture before ending as methodologically planned. Nevertheless, what appeared as a moment of rupture became an opportunity for capture as the participatory media research project revealed variations on modes of ethico-political praxis that oriented the production of a mobile app that serves local marginalized interests. For researchers seeking to participate with activist-oriented youth on the iii production of mobile app projects, disruption can become a generative asset that opens up creative spaces and passageways for producing socially useful mobile apps at the grassroots level. iv For David v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee. I cannot express enough my sincere gratitude for your guidance and support throughout this personal and intellectual journey. To Jim, thank you for your unwavering support. Your motivation, patience, and immense knowledge made each phase of researching and writing this dissertation an enriching experience. You allowed me the freedom and flexibility to contribute to the building of the “hacienda.” I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor. To Cheryl, thank you for supporting my academic endeavors in cultural studies and all things digital. Your encouragement and intellectual guidance provided me the confidence and inspiration to do my best work. I cannot thank you enough. To Sherick, your scholarly leadership and counsel emboldened my ability to produce this dissertation. Also, thank you for welcoming me into the Qualitative Studies certificate program and allowing me to participate with your research team in the Bruce A. Carter Qualitative Thought Laboratory. You made me a better qualitative researcher. To Mark, I greatly appreciate your guidance and mentorship during the assembly of this dissertation. Your insight and advice greatly informed and shaped my intellectual curiosity and scholarly interests in ways that I am still recognizing. I will also always appreciate the opportunity to participate in your computational media and visualization courses and to learn from you during our programming and app making sessions. To George, I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to learn from you and draw on your wisdom. You helped to open my eyes to what it means to be a critical and creative researcher and thinker – thank you. vi Next, I want to acknowledge the encouragement and support from those who have helped me to navigate the terrains of the academy and make this journey a valuable experience. To Janice Anderson, I appreciate your consistent support. You always welcomed me into your office to discuss and enrich my work. To Anne Bryan, thank you for taking the time to shepherd me through the doctoral process. You always answered my questions with patience and clarity. To Victoria Szabo at Duke University, thank you for allowing me to participate in the Information Science + Studies certificate program and the PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge. I learned so much from this experience. I want to thank all of my PhD colleagues, with whom I have shared moments of anxiety but also excitement. I am also thankful for having the opportunity to teach a talented group of undergraduates while pursuing and completing the PhD program. I am very appreciative of the experience of learning from each of you. Finally, to all of my family and friends, both living and not, thank you for being a source of support and inspiration. You cheered me on when I found myself flagging. To Grace, our time together was brief, but you lived each step of this journey with me. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 Overview......................................................................................................................... 1 An Emergent Process and Product: In Past and Present Tense ......................................... 2 Assigning Pseudonyms .................................................................................................. 10 Individual Pseudonyms ...................................................................................... 12 Group Pseudonym ............................................................................................. 13 Why Mobile App Making? ............................................................................................ 15 App Appropriation ........................................................................................................ 17 App Development ......................................................................................................... 21 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 24 Organization of The Dissertation ................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2: FIRST ENCOUNTERS ...................................................................................... 28 Routines of Gilles Hall .................................................................................................. 28 Trained Perspectives...................................................................................................... 29 First Evening in Gilles Hall ........................................................................................... 31 Workplace Disruption ................................................................................................... 34 Meeting Captain Non-Leader ........................................................................................ 35 viii Preparation .................................................................................................................... 42 Next Evening in Gilles Hall ........................................................................................... 44 Insubordination ............................................................................................................. 48 Next Steps ..................................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER 3: SITUATIONIST IMAGININGS ........................................................................ 50 Passageways .................................................................................................................. 50 The Situationist International ......................................................................................... 52 The May ‘68 Enragés .................................................................................................... 58 The Millennial Enragés ................................................................................................. 64 Memes and Meme Making ............................................................................................ 68 Next Steps ..................................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 77 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 77 Toward Participatory Media Research ........................................................................... 79 Participatory