IV ISA Forum of Sociology (February 23-28, 2021)

JS-22

Youth, Gender and Place

Abstract Submissions Closed

RC32 Women, Gender and Society (host committee)
RC34 Sociology of Youth

Language: English and Spanish

Session Type: Oral

This session seeks to expand knowledge of the role and the relevance place has for young adults across different localities. Place is conceptualized as actively created in communication with other localities, shaped by globalized social and cultural processes, and produced through social relations based on gender, race and class (Massey 1994). In youth studies, young adults are assumed to live in urban settings and these places are seldom theorized, what Farrugia (2014) refers to as the field’s metrocentric nature. The taken-for granted urban setting inhibits theorizing of how cities create a context for youth identity and experience. Equally important, it obscures place-based theorization of rural young adults. Increasingly, the concept of place is being used to explore how rural young adults define themselves and develop identities in relation to their localities (Cuervo and Wyn 2017, Farrugia et al. 2014, Svensson 2006, 2017). This session seeks to engage with this emerging scholarship by bringing into the conversation gender as it intersects with other power relations. Papers will consider the role and relevance of place and gender (intersectionality) in young adults’ lives as empirical questions. What does place mean for young adults and how are they involved in creating place? How does gender shape their understandings and actions around place? How do place and gender enhance our understanding of the other three main themes of this forum: democracy, inequalities and the environment?