Exploring Youth Cultures Geographically Through Active Learning

Abstract

This paper presents strategies for actively involving students in studying cultural geography through a research project on youth cultures. It provides a basic framework to investigate selected “subcultures” focusing on the origin and diffusion of each culture, its material and non-material aspects and the attributes and meanings of spaces used by each cultural group and youth cultures in the context of change. Students used a variety of methodologies to gather data and to describe and analyze the cultures selected. Of the eleven youth cultures investigated by the class, examples from the cultures of raves, skateboarding, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are selectively presented to elucidate their geographic characteristics.

Key Words:

• undergraduate education
• active learning
• cultural geography
• youth cultures