scholarly journals Young people, good life narratives, and sustainable futures: the case of Instagram

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Loukianov ◽  
Kate Burningham ◽  
Tim Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Sustainable Futures

Formerly Detained Adolescents’ Narratives: On the Interplay between Quality of Life and Desistance

2021 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2110239
Author(s):  
Nele Van Hecke ◽  
Florien Meulewaeter ◽  
Wouter Vanderplasschen ◽  
Lore Van Damme ◽  
Jan Naert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Young People ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
Desistance From Crime ◽  
Good Lives

In recent years, a growing trend to consider strengths and protective factors in studies on desistance from crime has emerged. The present study explores three formerly detained adolescents’ narratives, aiming to tease out how Quality of Life (QoL) and desistance interact in pathways towards a “better life.” The narratives suggest that the journey towards a better life is highly individual, and may unfold via multiple pathways characterized by an ambivalent relationship between QoL and desistance. Alongside the importance of individual aspects and social support, societal barriers and opportunities play a significant role in creating new chances to re-build a life and prosocial identities. This reflects earlier findings that desistance is not an individual responsibility. It is essential to support young people to overcome societal barriers that impede participation in society and living a good life. This research adds to growing evidence of strengths-based approaches to rehabilitation, such as the Good Lives Model (GLM).

Behind the Popular Narrative: Negotiating Life and Political Engagement in Conflicted Kashmir

2021 ◽  
pp. 232102302110430
Author(s):  
Wahid Ahmad Dar
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The State ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Popular Narrative ◽  
Political Actions

The article focuses on the subaltern system of micro appropriations or Jugaads used by young Kashmiris to survive within precarious situations inflicted due to armed conflict. More particularly, it argues that such Jugaads are invoked by the subaltern consciousness of Tehreeq-e-Azadi, which offers space for not just the negotiation with the state but also the creative improvisation of daily political actions. It is illustrated that young people’s political participation is entangled with the attempts to overcome the uncertainty around their lives, thereby offering them pragmatic solutions in advancing their interests. It is further elaborated that the existing polarization between separatism and mainstream is obscure at the experiential level, living within precarious situations has taught young people to silently craft possibilities of a good life without looking confrontational to either side. The article argues that localized forms of engagement are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of how modern states operate.

Justice Seeking is Joy Seeking: The Formation of Faith-Informed, Community-Focused, Critical Consciousness in Adolescents

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
David Anderson Hooker ◽  
Elizabeth W. Corrie ◽  
Itihari Toure
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Good Life ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Intentional Community ◽  
Game Of Life ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Generational Identity ◽  
The Church

Abstract Seeking justice, understanding what makes for peace and pursuing it, these are integral aspects of the pursuit of the Good Life. In this chapter three youth and community development experts make the case that 1) a vital aspect of development is empowering adolescents with a faith-informed, community-focused, critical consciousness; 2) young people are formed in community and joy cannot be fully experienced except communally and in the pursuit of JustPeace; and 3) the church has opportunities to intervene at critical junctures in youth formation to help them see the importance of pursuing communal JustPeace for their own ability to live the Good Life. In support of these claims, a framework of radical Identity is postulated and two practices—the Eight Bowls of Life Ceremony for generational identity marking and the Game of Life, part of a three-week intentional community of the Youth Theological Initiative (yti) – are presented. Each practice contributes to formation of justice-seeking identities in adolescents as integral aspects of preparation for the life-long pursuit of God’s joy, God’s good life, and even God’s salvation.

“Hustling is when you try to make a good life”

2020 ◽  
pp. 110-138
Author(s):  
Christine Jeske
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Young People ◽  
Good Life ◽  
African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
New Generation

This chapter introduces a narrative of “hustling” that motivates young people to perform their future hopes and never give up, despite full awareness of the disproportionate challenges they face in society. It defines a hustler as someone who tries, and talks about what entrepreneurship is like in South Africa. It discusses the difficulties that aspiring African entrepreneurs encounter as they try to become successful in their business. It talks about the lack of pride the new generation of South Africans have and how this has affects their attitude towards work and how this impacts African society. It talks about survivalist improvisation, how Africans put up an image of dignity in the midst of struggle, and their feelings of being trapped in that situation.

scholarly journals ‘Having money is not the essential thing . . . but . . . it gets everything moving’: Young Colombians Navigating Towards Uncertain Futures?

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110242
Author(s):  
Sonja Marzi
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Social Navigation ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Constraints ◽  
Occupational Goals

In this article, I extend the discussion of aspirations as a conceptual tool by exploring how young Colombians plan to pursue them and by seeking to understand their aspirations as a way of navigating towards what they see as a good life. Drawing upon insights from fieldwork, I use Vigh’s concept of social navigation to emphasise the importance of the social environment, and the available opportunity structures and resources, which shape young people’s aspirations and their ideas of a good life but which, more importantly, influence their navigational strategies to pursue them. I argue that Colombian young people from poor backgrounds do have aspirations and that these go beyond educational and occupational goals. Their aspirations provide information about their desire for a more stable future in an uncertain world but do not necessarily match the opportunities available to them. The young Cartagenians featuring in this study, therefore, struggle to overcome contextual and structural constraints in their social navigation, which is aimed at achieving a good life. I conclude that the young people featured in this study live amid uncertainty about their future and follow a form of doxa in formulating their aspirations. However, while the combination of economic constraints and doxic aspirations that are usually unachievable create barriers to their imagined futures, the young people socially navigate according to the opportunities that emerge and become available to them, to achieve a form of what they perceive as a good life, whereby educational and occupational goals became a means to an end.

scholarly journals Let’s talk about sex: Discourses on sexual relations, sugar dating and “prostitution-like” behaviour in drug treatment for young people

2021 ◽  
pp. 145507252110180
Author(s):  
Ditte Andersen ◽  
Ida Friis Thing
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Drug Treatment ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Exchange Economies ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Alternative Discourses ◽  
Recurrent Theme

Background: Sexual relations are a recurrent theme in drug treatment that aims for a holistic inclusion of concerns considered important in young people's lives. Nevertheless, it remains understudied how counselors attend to this theme Aim: To investigate the discourses on sexual relations in drug treatment for young people provided by the Scandinavian welfare state of Denmark Analysis: Drawing on qualitative interviews with 16 counselors the analysis first identifies three discourses that legitimize sexual relations as a theme in drug treatment by linking the theme to a) pleasure, b) risks, and c) problems. These discourses legitimize the theme by constructing sexual relations as part of the good life, as potentially harmful, or as related to past trauma triggering present problems. Second, the analysis identifies a gendered storyline on sexual relations in exchange economies, e.g., sugar dating, described by some counselors as “prostitution-like” behavior. Findings: The gendered storyline is almost exclusively linked to young women's behavior and produces a gendered shame by indicating deviant femininity. Simultaneously, the storyline taboos how the young men may experience vulnerable sexual relations in exchange economies Conclusion: Alternative discourses can provide a broader repertoire of subject positions to the benefit of all genders.

scholarly journals Radically Ordinary Lives: Young Rural Stayers and the Ingredients of the Good Life in Finnish Lapland

Young ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 110330882110646
Author(s):  
Ria-Maria Adams ◽  
Teresa Komu
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Career Plans ◽  
Home Town ◽  
Finnish Lapland

This article focuses on young people who, despite the general tendency towards youth outmigration in rural areas, have decided to stay in their home town. We explore the agency of young, conscious stayers, as well as the process of staying in the northern Finnish town of Kemijärvi. The stayers’ values and perceptions of the constituents of a good life could be taken as an alternative to the prevailing Western ideal that emphasizes mobility and ambitious educational and career plans, and is, in part, driving young people to leave their rural hometowns. The stayers in this study are active participants in their own fate and are content with their choice of staying. Applying ethnographic methods, we undertake to learn what rural stayers consider the building blocks of a good life in a small-town setting, one offering comparatively limited options in terms of jobs, education and leisure activities.

scholarly journals Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Anita Hardon
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Good Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Psychoactive Substances ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Shared Understandings ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract The everyday lives of contemporary youth are awash with chemicals to boost pleasure, energy, sexual performance, appearance, and health. What do pills, drinks, sprays, powders, and lotions do for youth? What effects are youth seeking? The ChemicalYouth ethnographies presented here, based on more than five years of fieldwork conducted in Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Cayagan de Oro, Paris, Makassar, Puerto Princesa, and Yogyakarta, show that young people try out chemicals together, compare experiences, and engage in collaborative experiments. ChemicalYouth: Navigating Uncertainty: In Search of the Good Life makes a case for examining a broader range of chemicals that young people use in their everyday lives. It focuses not just on psychoactive substances—the use of which is viewed with concern by parents, educators, and policymakers—but all the other chemicals that young people use to boost pleasure, moods, vitality, appearance, and health, purposes for using chemicals that have received far less scholarly attention. It takes the use of chemicals as situated practices that are embedded in social relations and that generate shared understandings of efficacy. More specifically, it seeks to answer the question: how do young people balance the benefits and harms of chemicals in their quest for a good life?

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