Young people, place and identity: Young Australians in relation to rural settings

Drawing on longitudinal data for two generations of young Australians, this paper challenges urban-centric conceptions of youth and youth transitions. New landscapes of production, consumption and protection, including the casualisation of the youth labour market, powered by three decades of neoliberal policies have impacted on young people’s opportunities and choices in rural settings.  Understanding the relevance of place in the construction of youth identity means identifying the ways in which people and places are interconnected, and the ways in which local and global processes interact. This signifies that young people’s lives in rural settings need to be comprehended with a framework that acknowledges individual transitions (from youth to adulthood) as well as social and economic changes.  Our analysis draws on a relational concept of youth that locates the meaning of age within historical, economic, social and cultural processes rather than biological and psychological developments. We draw on individual narratives of life that span twenty years as well as data on the patterns of transition and life experience for two longitudinal cohorts of young people to provide a more nuanced understanding of young Australians in relation to rural settings. Our research shifts the focus from a view of rural youth as homogenous and disadvantaged to an understanding of the ways in which young people construct lives and identities over time, intersecting with rural locations that are themselves undergoing significant transformations. Our approach challenges neoliberal accounts of post-school transition that equate youth as human capital that fail to account for the variety of local and global economic, political, social and cultural forces that constrain or produce opportunities in their post-school transition. The narratives offered by these young people highlight how young people in rural spaces negotiate their transition to adulthood and the relevance of place in relation to the construction of identity.