Urban Youth: cultures, identities and spatialities

AAG 2008 Second Call for Papers

Urban Youth: cultures, identities and spatialities

Organised paper session
2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers 15-19th
April Boston, Massachusetts

Organisers
Lorraine van Blerk (University of Reading)
Gareth Jones (London School of Economics)

Background
Recent international media interest has heightened awareness of,
and ‘criminalised’, the identities of youth ‘gangs’ on inner city estates,
streets and neighbourhoods in the West. Similar youth cultures present in
many cities in the South has become part of everyday life for large
numbers of young people growing up in poverty. These representations of
urban youth have implications for the way young people are able to
participate in peer culture, express particular identities and display
connectedness to specific localities. This session aims to bring together
these important strands by addressing some key questions including:
What does the general criminalisation of urban youth cultures mean for
young people’s negotiation of public space? How do young people construct
their identities as urban youth in light of these negative associations?
How are youth cultures and identities impacted by processes of
globalisation and global interconnectedness?

Themes
We welcome abstracts for papers related to any aspect of this topic.
Possible themes may include (but are by no means limited to):

• Urban youth cultures: gangs, violence and street identities
• Youth offending: criminal identities, prison cultures and
surveillance
• Transient geographies: young people’s social and spatial (im)
obilities in the city
• Global interconnectedness and youth cultures

Abstracts
Please send abstracts (250 words maximum) by 8th October, to: Lorraine van
Blerk (l.c.vanblerk@reading.ac.uk) or Gareth Jones (g.a.jones@lse.ac.uk)

Decisions on abstracts will be made and all participants notified by 16th
October in order to register online with the AAG by the 31st October
deadline.