24/03/16 (Re)Imagining Youth Dr Susan Batchelor and Dr Lisa Whi4aker, University of Glasgow Dr Alistair Fraser and Leona Li, University of Hong Kong (Re)Imagining Pearl Jephcott’s ‘Time of One’s Own’ Methodological challenges and theoretical insights from a • Historical and cross-cultural comparison of youth comparative study of youth leisure and social change leisure in Glasgow and Hong Kong (ESRC-RGC) • Driven by theoreIcal concerns relaIng to youth, Dr. Susan A. Batchelor and Dr. Lisa Whittaker, globalisaIon and social change University of Glasgow • QualitaIve case-study design, revisiIng one fieldsite in Scotland and one matched fieldsite in Hong Kong • Drawing on tradiIonal place-based methods and innovaIve digital social research tools @imaginingyouth reimaginingyouth@gmail.com hOp://reimaginingyouth.wordpress.com 1 Background • DissaIsfacIon with Youth Service, which was regarded as ‘not geared to the current needs and aspiraIons of the younger generaIon, parIcularly those of adolescent age’ (JephcoO 1967: 2) Time of One’s Own • In 1959 the Secretary of State for Scotland set up a Standing ConsultaIve Council on Youth Service in Scotland • In 1964 the Council commissioned a ‘fact finding study’ of how young people spent their leisure, financed by the ScoYsh EducaIon Department Terms of Reference Terms of Reference ‘The object of the enquiry is to describe and evaluate the ‘The object of the enquiry is to describe and evaluate the leisure-2me interests and social a4tudes of young people leisure-9me interests and social aDtudes of young people in Scotland . It will be par9cularly concerned with the in Scotland. It will be par2cularly concerned with the middle group of cri9cal and non-conforming young people middle group of cri2cal and non-conforming young who remain unaffected by organised youth ac9vi9es and people who remain unaffected by organised youth at the same 9me avoid becoming part of the delinquent or ac2vi2es and at the same 9me avoid becoming part of the ac9vely an9social minority. The enquiry will be conducted delinquent or ac9vely an9social minority. The enquiry will in such a way as to provide an assessment both of the be conducted in such a way as to provide an assessment poten2ali2es for worthwhile future development in youth both of the poten9ali9es for worthwhile future service provision and of the limita2ons of exis2ng development in youth service provision and of the provision par9cularly in rela9on to the young people who limita9ons of exis9ng provision par2cularly in rela2on to do not at present par9cipate in its work and who might be the young people who do not at present par2cipate in its benefiBed it.’ (JephcoO 1967: 3) work and who might be benefi?ed it .’ (JephcoO 1967: 3) 1
24/03/16 The Importance of Context Research Design • Mass leisure • Age limited to 15 to 19-year-olds: ‘the age at which great majority make transiIon from school to work’ (p. 7) • The affluent teenager • Area limited to three sites in industrial belt of Central Lowlands (Drumchapel, Dennistoun, Armadale): ‘selected less for comparaIve purposes than because they were thought to have numerous counterparts in Central Scotland’ (p. 7) • Involvement of community stakeholders: ‘voluntary helpers’ • Approximiately 3,000 young people involved in the study • Variety of methods: individual interviews; group discussions; ‘casual data’ from cafés, pubs, youth groups; diaries and wriOen material; photographs, drawings and arIsIc sketches 8 Key Findings: Key Findings: Employment & Education Leisure Spent at Home • Home and family exerted considerable influence • Majority of young people in the study were wage-earners (only 1 in 6 sIll in • Most common home-based pursuits were: ‘pop educaIon) • Both earnings and spending were and the telly … fed daily by mass media’ (p. 106) lower than generally assumed to be • Absence of books, as disInct from magazines, in the case • Shig work and unusual opening hours their homes: ‘A couple of book shelves built into (e.g. for shop employees) were the council house of the future might be money beginning to provide leisure at unfamiliar Imes well spent’ (p. 106) • Those in educaIon had pracIcal • ‘Feminine’ versus ‘mechanical’ skills and interest advantages in terms of sports faciliIes, school and college clubs etc. in art, esp. amongst ‘shy and someImes lonely and were subjected to more pressure to use their leisure construcIvely individuals’ (p. 107) Key Findings: Leisure I Key Findings : Leisure II • Many of the youngsters didn't engage in unstructured • A higher proporIon of young people leisure away from home took part in commercial leisure (vs LI) • Amongst those who did, the most popular acIviIes • The most popular were: cinema (81%), were ‘scratch football’ (boys) and ‘visiIng’ (girls) dancing (69%) and café-going (51%) • Cinema more readily available than ‘The places where boys can get this healthy unsupervised other faciliIes play without causing a nuisance to other people are • Dancing associated with Trouble (esp diminishing all the 9me. The large distant sports ground amongst those in their early teens) does not fulfil the same need as the small site near at • Cafés provided a valuable social hand. There is the strongest case for providing plenty of funcIon such sites’ (p. 110) 2
24/03/16 Our ReOlections, Prior to Fieldwork • Remarkable for its prescient sociological analysis of youth, but also its research design and methodology • Conducted at criIcal juncture in the development of youth culture, linked to wider changes in educaIon, the labour market, mass media, leisure etc. (Re)Imagining Youth • Richness of mulI-method approach when compared with the specializaIon and narrowing in focus of more recent sociological research • UIlizaIon of visual, creaIve and parIcipatory methods, long before they became popular • Forerunner to what is now referred to as studies of the ‘missing middle’, ‘ordinary’ or ‘unspectacular’ youth (Re)Visiting Dennistoun Glasgow in a Changing World Stage 1: October 2013-April 2014 • Ethnographic observaIons with local youth • Decline from global powerhouse of shipbuilding and organisaIons manufacturing (‘Second City of Empire’ 1875-1914) • Interviews with key stakeholders (n=9) • Shig to service-based economy, revolving around • Researcher photography retail, leisure and tourism Stage 2: May 2014-January 2015 • Unemployment rates well above the naIonal average • Focus groups with young people (n=12) and are highest for young people • Interviews with young people (n=22) • ParIcipant photography Stage 3: February 2015-May 2015 • Online survey re online/social media (n=100) • Professional illustraIon 15 Changing Youth Transitions Globalisation and New Media • Prolonged educaIon and mixing of formerly • New forms of mobility increasingly consItute separate social classes ‘a global transiIon regime’ (Woodward & Wyn – Extended transiIons, economic independence deferred 2015) – More diverse, fluid and hybrid youth cultures • Expansion of educaIon and new forms of work associated with global labour markets • Restructuring of labour market and demand for a • MigraIon of young people to metropolitan more educated, flexible and mobile workforce centres, naIonally and internaIonally – Work biographies increasingly characterised by uncertainty, compeIIon, risk • Related to/supported by advances in ICT that – Demand for greater biographical decision-making enable new forms of connecIvity 17 18 3
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