Processus d’émergence d’une « jeunesse android » et construction d’une nouvelle figure entrepreneuriale à l’ère de l’économie numérique au Cameroun : le téléchargeur des productions culturelles à Yaoundé

Article abstract
At the time of digital economy, the democratization of the social uses of digital
tools by people has given rise a new sector of production in the informal sector
in Cameroon. This paper seeks to analyze the way the youth, who are facing
the increased worsening of their life conditions, invest their digital skills as an
economic opportunity, by exercising the job of "downloader" of cultural
productions in urban areas. The study is based on an ethnographic survey
combining interviews and the participative observation. It shows how youth,
in their self-employment dynamics, mobilize their imagination and
entrepreneurial skills. The appropriation of digital technologies by
downloaders structures social gender relations, contributing to the production
of masculinity in the urban space. By invading the roads, these youth maintain
socially hierarchical interactions between themselves, whereas their
relationship with employees of the council in charge of regulating the
occupation of urban space are characterized by power states and corrupt
practices which partly structure the functioning of the postcolonial State.