Geographies of Youth and Intersectionality

While the age range of 16–25 years is commonly used to define ‘youth’, we seek to define youth as a social construction, where the meaning varies over time and differs between cultures. The chapter is about social justice issues associated with how youth is recognised and how young people’s spaces have been regulated. We build on key concepts introduced in Part 1, including difference and intersectionality, stigma, the geographies of production and social reproduction, citizenship rights and responsibilities, and the role of the state. We explore how everyday spaces of encounter are created for and felt by young people in an everyday ordinary sense. We consider some of the various people involved in supporting young people’s lives, including immediate kin and staff/volunteers in urban youth services. We also appraise the various actors and processes involved in the policing of young people. Here, the various encounters occur across multiple fronts, with parents, peers and wider publics.