Geographies of Reflexivity: The Spatio-Temporality of Contemporary Youth Subjectivities

This paper approaches the spatio-temporality of contemporary youth subjectivities through a discussion of the spatial dimensions of individualisation. The paper argues for a renewed focus on the reflexive practices of young people in relation to the way that local social conditions are shaped and reshaped as part of broader processes of social change taking place across the western world. Emerging debates about the meaning and significance of reflexivity are situated within geographical theories that emphasise the construction of space as a meeting point of temporalities, as well as the relationship between place, identity, and social practice. In order to provide a located and spatialised understanding of the consequences of social change for young people’s identities, the reflexive practices and biographies of young people in different spatial contexts are situated within this theoretical context. The paper argues that reflexivity is a spatialised phenomenon: young people mobilise reflexive practices in relation to local structural conditions, themselves embedded within the spatial dynamics of globalisation and individualisation. The paper concludes by calling for a spatialised understanding of the consequences of social change for young people’s identities.