YOST2101: Urban Youth and Youth Issues

This course explores issues faced by youth, especially those who live in or are characterized by our understanding of urban areas. We might begin by asking questions like “why aren’t youth in racially segregated and economically privileged urban areas of Minneapolis labeled “urban”, while poor immigrant youth in the suburban housing projects of Paris are,” “how did city planners and urban housing policy act to segregate and problematize some geographies and people” or “how are urban communities policed and what are the consequences of this policing”?We will critically examine what the term “urban youth” means, how it has evolved over time and place and its use as a code word with implicit association and within this context how urban youth have been studied, problematized and worked with. Using a critical Youth Studies framework, which engages with the role of historical, social, cultural, geographical and political contexts, we seek to understand how each of these axes of power-relations influence the opportunities and struggles of young people, their interaction with institutions and the construction of their identities in particular places. We then seek to rethink new directions in research and practice and understand what this means for youth as citizens.

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