Gap Years, Cosmopolitan Cultural Capital and Transnational Justice

This paper considers if gap years are a cosmopolitan endeavour. It draws on a qualitative study of the online travel narratives of young people from the UK who blog about their year out between school and university. The analysis focuses on the bloggers' representations of people and places as 'different' in their travel stories. Volunteering overseas as part of a gap year is often promoted as a way for young people to become 'global citizens', and independent travel as a way to have 'authentic' inter-cultural experiences.

Can such gap years build a transnational sense of justice, or are they simply a way for already privileged youth to claim they are doing something 'worthwhile'? Gap year students gain personal benefits, which I conceptualise as 'cosmopolitan cultural capital'. This suggests they may be primarily concerned with self-interest rather than a commitment to the Other.

While young people may have good intentions, I argue that the way the bloggers frame their gap year stories tends to reproduce dominant meanings and values, and are shaped by historical legacies and structural forces. Their narratives also contain instances of more reflexive engagements with difference and diversity, however. Drawing on these findings, I consider the future prospects for gap years as an agent of positive social change. I suggest how young people might be encouraged to critically engage with wider issues of global justice before, during and after taking time out overseas.