The epistemological challenge represented by youth studies is in part related to its recent establishment as an academic field in its own right and to the heterogeneous social, political, cultural and economic conditions in which young people’s experience is formed. There has been significant rigidity in this field of study when meanings have been imposed and concepts legitimized, which for the most part subject new generations to controlled conditions and moral discipline. This paradoxically coexists with the rights of children approach and the transformation of the State as social protector, which was established many decades ago with the landmark Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1989. In this context it is necessary to examine in greater detail theoretical and empirical observations that lead to broader definitions on the understanding and study of youth issues, overcoming reductionist perceptions of age and/or bio-psychological developments. This also includes exploring the context of inequality and the individuals that make it a public intervention issue, a process in which they are involved and in which they make important adult decisions.
The research will be carried out with a dual objective to examine the field of youth through a study of an ICT (information and communications technology) intervention policy, which is aimed at boosting learning processes for the young in the education system. Therefore, the Connecting Equality Programme (PCI) will be the basis of the analysis when attempting to examine the notion of youth in the construction of a public problem in Argentina. This methodological strategy hopes to track the social representation of the individuals involved as well as examining in detail the paradigm of youth and technology. The conditions of inequality in society are the context in which this national and universal coverage programme works, which is seemingly answering a technological necessity for youth experience, in terms of inclusion by means of material assets; this need is satisfied by providing a laptop to every boy and girl in State secondary schools.
Key words: ICT policies; young people; social policies; inequalities; Argentina; social inclusion.