Not In The Same World: Topological Youths, Topographical Policies

Abstract

Public attitudes continue to portray youths in Western societies as being passive and disengaged. Critical scholars are largely unanimous in that the misrecognition of and disrespect for young people's everyday experiences and activities form a major reason why they appear detached from politics and public life. Contributing to this debate, this paper traces the everyday experiences of some Finnish urban youths, and argues that their lived worlds differ notably from the worlds of the public administration that seeks to address youths as active citizens. Based on these findings, the paper proposes the pragmatically oriented concepts of “issue publics” and “topological connectives” for rethinking youth participation and democratic life more broadly.

Key words:

• children's geography
• lifeworld
• sports
• mundane politics
• youth inclusion
• hobbies and fandom

I wish to thank the Academy of Finland (grant SA258341) for financially supporting this work and the Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG) at the University of Tampere for an inspiring research environment. Special thanks to Elina Stenvall for her participation in fieldwork, and to Riikka Korkiamäki and Markus Laine for their comments on the previous versions of this paper.

I wish to thank the Academy of Finland (grant SA258341) for financially supporting this work and the Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG) at the University of Tampere for an inspiring research environment. Special thanks to Elina Stenvall for her participation in fieldwork, and to Riikka Korkiamäki and Markus Laine for their comments on the previous versions of this paper.

Notes

I wish to thank the Academy of Finland (grant SA258341) for financially supporting this work and the Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG) at the University of Tampere for an inspiring research environment. Special thanks to Elina Stenvall for her participation in fieldwork, and to Riikka Korkiamäki and Markus Laine for their comments on the previous versions of this paper.

1. The empirical research was carried out in the research projects Children as Political Selves: Recognizing Politics, Contextualizing Policies (SA126700) and Preventing Children's Marginalization through Place‐Based Participation (SA134949, with Jouni Häkli, Pia Bäcklund and Elina Stenvall). The analysis is part of my current study Political Presence as a Right of the Child (SA258341).

2. Like Martin and Secor (2014) and Joronen (2016), I understand topographical spatiality as one fixed spatial formation among others. Yet in this paper, I distinguish it from other topological formations for analytical purposes, to contrast the dominant spatial imaginational of participatory activities with the spatialities directing young people's agencies.

3. All names are pseudonyms.

4. This finding opens up another topological aspect, where, following a Lacanian approach, “the city and the subject are distributed and splayed out, a Möbius surface that encircles its own limit” (Secor 2013, 440). As a particular approach with deep philosophical roots, engaging with it is beyond the scope of this article.

5. Madagascar is strongly present also in my research materials from Northern England.

6. Other topics that the youth brought up in this way were, for example, wars in the Middle East, corruption in Russia, poverty in Africa and pollution in natural environments like the Baltic Sea and Finnish lakes.

Additional information

Funding

Academy of Finland

Notes on contributors

Kirsi Pauliina Kallio

Dr. Kirsi Pauliina Kallio is a senior research fellow in the Space and Political Agency Research Group at the University of Tampere, Finland; [[email protected]].