XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

616

Critical Perspectives on Youth Wellbeing

RC34 Sociology of Youth (host committee)

Language: English

When it comes to youth there is tension inherent in the concept of wellbeing. Wellbeing has been framed as both a political concern and a subjective goal for young people. Contemporary youth policies worldwide promise to measure, monitor and promote youth wellbeing both locally and nationally. Yet the concept of wellbeing has been subject to sociological critique. When applied to young people the idea of wellbeing has two unproductive effects. Firstly, it normalizes well and unwell ways of being against standardised measures which may not be sensitive to economic, social and cultural differences. Secondly, the specific challenges faced by different and distinct groups of young people are individualized down to subjective measures of personal wellbeing. Thus, promotion of wellbeing can work as a categorizing force, and also as a mechanism of governance over those young people considered to be in need of guidance. On the positive side, wellbeing can be understood as a political right that calls for action to tackle inequalities affecting young people's lives. Yet we must be wary, since measures that claim to promote youth wellbeing can target non-normative individuals and their behaviour. There is a danger that wellbeing is only promoted in line with top-down definitions and understood solely as a function of good or bad individual choices. This session includes papers on youth wellbeing from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. We examine the intersections of youth wellbeing, power, violence and justice, as well as the responses of policy makers, service providers and NGOs.