This book takes a global perspective to address the concept of belonging in youth studies, interrogating its emergence as a reoccurring theme in the literature and elucidating its benefits and shortcomings. While belonging offers new alignments across previously divergent approaches to youth studies, its pervasiveness in the field has led to criticism that it means both everything and nothing and thus requires deeper analysis to be of enduring value. The authors do this work to provide an accessible, scholarly account of how youth studies uses belonging by focusing on transitions, participation, citizenship and mobility to address its theoretical and historical underpinnings and its prevalence in youth policy and research.

Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, Youth, Place and Theories of Belonging showcases cutting-edge empirical research on young people’s lifeworlds. The scholars demonstrate that belonging is personal, infused with individual and collective histories as well as interwoven with conceptions of place. In studying how young people adapt to social change the research highlights the plurality of belonging, as well as its temporal and fleeting nature. In the field of youth studies, we have seen a recent emphasis on studying the ways youth live out everyday multiculturalisms in an increasingly globalised world. How young people negotiate belonging in everyday life and how they come to understand their positions in fragmented societies remain emerging areas of scholarship. Composed of twelve chapters, the collection references key sites and institutions in young people’s lives such as schools, community/cultural centres, neighbourhoods and spaces of consumption. Drawing from diverse areas such as the rural, the urban as well as displacements and mobilities, this international collection enhances our understanding of the theories employed in the study of youth identity practices. Written in a direct and clear style, this collection of essays will be of interest to researchers working in geography, theories of affect, gender, mobility, performativities, and theories of space/place. Investigating how young people come to belong can open up new spaces and provide critical insights into young people’s identities.

This concise yet thorough introduction to the sociological study of young people exposes students to the historical and mythic foundations of the discipline before looking at the cultural and educational aspects of youth today. With an exploration of methodology and sociological theories,along with interdisciplinary research evidence, the text wards off the stereotype of the 'stormy youth' while providing context and analytical commentary on the most critical and interesting issues in the field. Unique in its approach and with the most up-to-date research and analysis available,Approaching Youth Studies offers a distinctly Canadian perspective on the study of youth.

In an era when many young people feel marginalized and excluded, this is the first comprehensive, critical account to shed new light on the trouble of ‘belonging’ and how young people in schools understand, enact and experience ‘belonging’ (and non-belonging). It traverses diverse dimensions of identity, including gender and sexuality; race, class, nation and citizenship; and place and space. Each section includes a provocative discussion by an eminent and international youth scholar of youth, and is essential reading for anyone involved with young people and schools. This book is a crucial resource and reference for sociology of education courses at all levels as well as courses in student inclusion, equity and student well-being.

This interdisciplinary collection charts the experiences of young people in rural and regional areas and city outskirts around the world. International experts investigate aspects of marginal spatiality including citizenship, materiality and belonging, and look at the complex relationships between place, history, politics and education.

This interdisciplinary collection charts the experiences of young people in places of spatial marginality around the world, dismantling the privileging of urban youth, urban locations and urban ways of life in youth studies and beyond. Expert authors investigate different dimensions of spatiality including citizenship, materiality and belonging, and develop new understandings of the complex relationships between place, history, politics and education. From Australia to India, Myanmar to Sweden, and the UK to Central America, international examples from both the Global South and North help to illuminate wider issues of intergenerational change, social mobility and identity. By exploring young lives beyond the city, this book establishes different ways of thinking from a position of spatial marginality.

This book contains empirical research from established and emerging scholars who draw upon interdisciplinary perspectives of space and place in order to investigate young people’s sense of identities and belongings in diverse international contexts. The contributors aim to enhance our understanding of how theories of belonging are employed in the study of youth identity as these young people come to belong at a local, national, global, and even virtual level. The collection draws on research in the rural, the urban, and online, showcasing key sites and communities that play a role in young people’s lives as they negotiate their sense of agency and sense of identity within the contexts of the locale. Identities, Youth and Belonging will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including sociology, education, social policy, politics and geography.