Social geographies: Identity construction among young people in peripheral neighbourhoods of Barcelona

Drawing on the ethnographical fieldwork of my ongoing research with youths from 16 to 20 years old in a peripheral neighbourghood from Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain), I intend to bring forward a concept referring to the interplay between subjective social location and objective structural positions in the identification construction: social geographies. Peripheral neighbourhoods in this city have been built and developed by two immigration flows. The first one during the 60s and 70s constituted mainly by workers and their families from southern Spain. The second began in approximately the year 2000 by workers and their families who came from non-EU countries. Through previous research experience, I have witnessed that young people living in these neighbourhoods are perceived mostly as a social problem, and the image wandering about them is negative. The ethnical and cultural diversity are also perceived as social problems. What is the meaning of these labels for these youths? In what ways are these labels affecting how they see themselves? At the same time, a series of issues are posed related to the way these young people experience social inequalities and social categorizations in their daily lives and in relevant contexts including home, school, non-formal education and leisure spaces.

My aim in this paper is to analyse how these labelling relates to the process of identity construction in the case of these young people, and to see to what extent the reflexive modernization thesis can be applied to this particular case in which there is, at least apparently, a calling upon collective and opposed identities between the "locals" (former migrants) and the "new immigrants".