Stephanie skourtes

Critical Youth Studies: Youth Cultures and Identities

Youth studies is an interdisciplinary field that includes the study of the sociology, history, culture, and politics that together construct the category ‘youth.’ The term ‘youth’ in this sense generally refers to young people who are chronologically teens or young adults, but ‘youth’ is also a subjectivity and an identity. Thus, we will examine the social, cultural, and historical conditions that construct ‘youth’ and position young people as a social problem. We will discuss the theories and perspectives from youth cultural studies and youth subcultural theory in order to explore the cultural ‘life worlds’ that youth construct. “What constitutes youth culture?” “Where does it come from and how has it changed?” “What power relations frame the concept youth and culture, and how do categories of difference shape youth identities?”

Young people who occupy the “spectacular” categories of urban life those in subcultures (skaters, wannabes, wiggers, punks) have attracted media and academic attention for decades. However, it is becoming increasingly common in cities that low-income, immigrant, high school push outs, and other disenfranchised young people are living on the margins of urban centers, on the fringe, both geographically as well as socially as they experience exclusion from the mainstream definition of “youth.” These young people are forgotten and ignored, except for when they become highly visible at key political moments that highlight public anxiety about the changing social world. (i.e. Trump’s dismantling of the Dream Act for undocumented immigrant youth). What social, political, and global forces are pushing marginalized young people to the edges of urban centers? How do certain young people become a “social problem”? What is life like for urban youth living on the fringe?

Understanding Capitalist Societies

Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction. The discipline of Sociology enables us to look beyond our limited view of the world to society as a whole, where we can examine the values, beliefs, ideas and institutions that comprise it, and the forces that change it. In this class, we examine various aspects of the social structure and the basic processes of social interaction which contribute towards shaping societal behavior in a capitalist society. The emphasis will be on ‘change’ and ‘critical’ perspectives, applied to ‘every-day’ phenomena within our lives to develop a ‘sociological lens’ with which to view the world.

Visual Research Methods

Visual research methods are a variety of methods which use images as the means of creating knowledge. Examples include visual ethnographies, photo elicitation, or participatory mapping. Visual methods images includes maps, drawings, photos, film, video, and diagrams. These images are generated in a variety of ways including through the activities of research participants, produced by the researcher, or using “found” visual materials. Visual data can also be used to spur discussion or as a focus for analysis.