Cool Places explores the contrasting experiences of contemporary youth. The chapters draw on techno music and ecstasy in Germany, clubbing in London, global backpacking and gangs in Santa Cruz as well as expereinces at home, on the streets and seeking employment. The contributors use these examples to explore representation and resistance and geographical concepts of scale and place in young people's lives within social, cultural and feminist studies to focus upon the complexities of youth cultures and their spatial representations and interactions. Contributors: Shane Blackman, Sophie Bowlby, Myrna Margulies Breitbart, Deborah Chambers, Luke Deforges, Claire Dwyer, Keith Hetherington, Cindi Katz, Heinz-Herman Kruger, Marion Leonard, Sally Lloyd Evans, Tim Lucas, Sara McNamee,Ben Malbon, Doreen Massey, Robina Mohammad, David Oswell, David Parker, Birgit Richard, Susan Ruddick, Tracey Skelton, Fiona Smith, Kevin Stevenson, Gill Valentine and Paul Watt
This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.
"Adolescent culture is always changing, making it difficult for youth pastors to keep up. Even college students who are a few years out of high school find it challenging to stay current with the changing culture of teens. However, when equipped with tools that help them think critically about culture on a broad scale, youth ministry students can be prepared for a strategic ministry to teens that effectively addresses the youth cultural context. This academic resource uses a multi-disciplinary approach to understand culture by exploring the nature, theology, ecology, and ethnography of culture, then combining these different perspectives to develop a critical approach to youth culture."
This book examines the relation between the phenomenon of globalization, changes in the lifeworld of young people and the development of specific youth cultures. It explores the social, political, economic and cultural impact of globalization on young people. Growing diversity in their lifeworlds, technological development, migration and the ubiquity of digital communication and representation of the world open up new forms of self-representation, networking and political expression, which are described and discussed in the book. Other topics are the impact of globalization on work and economy, global environmental issues such as climate change, political movements which put “nationalism first”, change of youth`s values and the significance of body, gender and beauty. The book highlights the challenges of young people in modern life, as well as the way in which they express themselves and engage in society – in culture, politics, work and social life.
This volume seeks to address what its contributors take to be an important lacuna in youth cultural research: a lack of interest in the phenomenon of collectivity and collective aspects of youth culture. It gathers scholars from diverse research backgrounds – ranging from contemporary subculture studies, fan culture studies, musicology, youth transitions studies, criminology, technology and work-life studies – who all address collective phenomena in young lives. Ranging thematically from music experience and festival participation, via soccer fan culture, leisure, street art, youth climate activism, to the design of EU youth policies and Australian government ‘project’ work with young migrants, the chapters develop a variety of approaches to collective aspects to young cultural practices and material cultures. To establish these new approaches, the contributors combine new theories and fresh empirical work; they critically engage with the tradition and they complement or even reconfigure traditional approaches in and around the field. The book will be of interest to researchers in a broad range of areas in and around the field of youth culture studies including post-subculture studies, cultural studies, musicology, fan-culture and youth transition research, but it is also of acute interest for theoretically interested sociologists. The volume offers a new afterword by French sociologist Michel Maffesoli.
The demise of state Socialisms caused radical social, cultural and economic changes in Eastern Europe. Since then, young people have been confronted with fundamental disruptions and transformations to their daily environment, while an unsettling, globalized world substantially reshapes local belongings and conventional values. In times of multiple instabilities and uncertainties, this volume argues, young people prefer to try to adjust to given circumstances than to adopt the behaviour of potential rebellious, adolescent role models, dissident counter-cultures or artistic breakings of taboo. Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context takes this situation as a starting point for an examination of generational change, cultural belongings, political activism and everyday practices of young people in different Eastern European countries from an interdisciplinary perspective. It argues that the conditions of global change not only call for a differentiated evaluation of youth cultures, but also for a revision of our understanding of 'youth' itself – in Eastern Europe and beyond.
In what ways can teachers build on youth culture to improve learning opportunities in the classroom? In this fascinating and highly readable collection, Korina M. Jocson brings together more than two dozen scholars, artists, educators, and youth workers to illustrate various ways of engaging nondominant youth through artistic and educational projects. These projects range not only in type (media, digital art, playwriting, and hip-hop) but also location (California, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Cuba, and Australia, among other areas) to reflect the wide range of possibilities for tapping into contemporary youth culture. The projects described are part of an emerging field that examines the benefits of youth participation in literary, digital media, and civics-related projects within schools and a variety of informal environments. "In Cultural Transformations, Jocson and her colleagues have created a truly invaluable resource. In these chapters, readers will learn that there is a broad array of cultural resources, typically located outside of school, that can be drawn upon to tap into the interests and passions of their students. With contributions from a broad array of artists, scholars, and practitioners who work within and outside of education, this book demonstrates that culture can serve as a powerful medium for reaching students who would otherwise be alienated and marginalized. The book is insightful and illuminating, and educators will find a treasure trove of ideas that help them make education relevant and meaningful to the students they serve. -- Pedro A. Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, New York University "In an ever more demographically diverse nation, looking anew at the ways our youth are taught is one of the greatest and most important challenges facing educators today. In addressing this challenge, these essays take the vibrancy of modern youth culture and show how it points to a new direction in pedagogical theory." -- C. Matthew Snipp, Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University Korina M. Jocson is an assistant professor of education at Washington University in St. Louis. Shirley Brice Heath is the Margery Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature and professor of linguistics and anthropology, emerita, at Stanford University.
Featuring both well known and emerging scholars from the UK, the USA and mainland Europe, this fascinating new volume addresses core theoretical and methodological developments before going on to examine key substantive themes in the study of young people's identities and lifestyles.
Within contemporary youth research there are two dominant streams - a 'transitions' and a 'cultures' perspective. This collection shows that it is no longer possible to understand the experience of young people through these prisms and proposes new conceptual foundations for youth studies, capable of bridging the gap between these approaches.
