24-25 July 2007
Young People, New Technologies and Political Engagement
University of Surrey, UK
14-15 June 2007
Work With Young People: Advancing theory, policy and practice
A two-day international conference
De Montfort University, Leicester
12-13 April 2007
BSA Annual Conference 2007: Youth Study Group Session - Connected Youth? Young People and Social Networks
University of East London, UK
Young People & New Technologies
Date: 7th - 9th September 2005
Venue: University College Northampton
As the use of new media technologies has become increasingly widespread in
Western societies, the significance of such new technologies for adolescents
has become a crucial area of research. Whether in respect of their patterns of
leisure and identity, their modes of learning and transition, or their everyday
domestic lives, youth are among the heaviest and most dynamic users of a
variety of new technologies, most notably perhaps, the various facets of the
internet, together with mobile phones, digital television, games consoles and
digital music players. At the same time however, it is clear that levels of access
and use are subject to considerable variations in quantity and quality.
Plenary speakers were:
• Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics), author of ´Young People
and New Media´, SAGE 2002)
• Bill Osgerby (London Metropolitan University), author of ´Youth Media´,
Routledge 2004).
To register for this conference or for more information, please go to http://www.youth-study.org.uk
‘Youth, Individualization and Risk’, (2 sequential sessions within the BSA Annual Conference), University of York, 21st-23rd March 2005.
Theories of risk (Beck 1992) and of individualization (Bauman 2000; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2001) have become central to social theory and this has been reflected in the emphasis placed upon such themes across a variety of different forms of research on young people.
The purpose of these sessions, organized by the Youth Study Group, is to bring together researchers whose work touches upon such themes from across a range of normally separated subject areas within youth studies. Thus, issues addressed include the role of work in the construction of individual biographies, the impact of skills (or lack thereof) upon transitions, the use of post-HE education to construct individualized life plans, the interplay of the individual and the peer group in decision making over drug use and, finally, the implications of leisure-related internet use for patterns of cultural identity.
In different ways, the papers all address theoretical suggestions about the increasing ‘disembeddedness’ of individuals from established trajectories or communities and the increasing role of complex ‘choices’ and, hence, risk taking, in the development of their biographies.
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British Sociological Association Youth Study Group and the
Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism (CRONEM)
´Youth, Ethnic Identity and the Future of Multiculturalism in Europe´
A One Day Seminar at the University of Surrey on Wednesday
21 July, 2004
Speakers included:
Tahir Abbas (Birmingham)
Erling Bjurström (Linkoping)
Bruce Cohen (Humboldt, Berlin)
David Garbin (Tours)
Cy Grant
Rupa Huq (Manchester)
Alex Seago (American Univ, Richmond)
Katharine Tyler (Surrey)
The influx of migrants into the European Union over the last twenty years has forced increasing attention among EU states upon issues of cultural pluralism and ´European polity-building´. Such attempts to promote multiculturalism in Europe, however, remain deeply problematic. Thus, distinctions continue to be made in public debates between ´foreign´ and ´local´ populations and between the needs of the economy for more skilled migrant labour and the introduction of tougher immigration policies. Similarly, both migrant groups and established ethnic minorities in EU states continue to be targets for racist groups. Additionally, it is increasingly clear that the term ´multiculturalism´ itself is fraught with problems in that, semantically speaking, it suggests a discourse of harmony, bridge-building and, ultimately, inclusion. However, it does not follow that multiculturalism is a ´natural´ or positive solution to cultural displacement.
As research has demonstrated, relocation by culturally displaced groups inevitably involves a process of (sometimes conflictful) negotiation, where new forms of hybridised identity are created through the interplay between elements of majority ethnic group cultures and cultural practices from the countries of origin. Such processes of negotiation have been extensively studied in relation to youth. As Back (1996) and Kaya (2001), for example, have demonstrated, young people have proven to be particularly resourceful in formulating creative strategies through which to carve out new spaces of identity in European urban settings. In particular, resources such as music, fashion, dance and street art have been used in highly effective and distinctive ways by young people from different minority ethnic backgrounds in the construction of what Hall (1992) has described as ´new ethnicities´, which challenge attempts to construct exclusivist traditions of a pure `white´ nation.
This one-day seminar explored the strategies employed by young people in the creation of these new identities in different European cities and the ways in which they challenge exclusivist, racialised traditions. At the same time it examined the ways in which the construction of new traditions by some young non-white people may reject new ethnicities and the process of hybridity. Furthermore, we wanted to debate the implications of these countervailing tendencies for multicultural discourse in Europe.
‘Young people doing things together’: the function, meanings and experiences of young people’s collectives.
BSA Youth Study Group Seminar Series
University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
19th and 20th January 2004
Young People, Education and Training
BSA Youth Study Group Seminar Series
School of Human Sciences (Building AD), Room 4 AD 00
University of Surrey
Guildford
Wednesday, 19th November 2003
10.30 am - 3.30 pm
‘Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes: Youth Cultures in the 21st Century’
BSA Youth Study Group Conference
University College Northampton, 11-13 September 2003
Website: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/scenes
´Young People, Intimacy & Everyday Life´
BSA Youth Study Group Seminar
University of Southampton
22nd January 2003, 10.30am - 4pm
One Day seminar
Young People and Technology
18 November 2002
Youth Research:European and Global Perspectives
3-5 September 2001
University of Plymouth
Young People and Drugs
July 2001
University of Teesside
One day seminar
´Popular Music Studies: Where Now?´
IASPM UK and Ireland Conference 2002
University of Newcastle, 16-18 July 2002
Roehampton Institute, London
Researching Youth: Issues, Controversies and Dilemmas
July 2000
University of Surrey
Two day conference
April 1999, BSA Conference, University of Glasgow, Cultural Transitions: Youth Research in the twenty- First Century Debate
September 1999, University of Surrey, Young People, Risk and Identity
One day seminar
January 2000, Manchester Metropolitan University, Young People and Transitions
One day seminar
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