Skateboarding Alone? Making Social Capital Discourse Relevant to Teenagers’ Lives

Abstract

Bound to the notion of teenage apathy is the concern that young people are increasingly disengaged from political and community issues and lacking in social capital. Voting is often regarded as the ultimate form of civic engagement, which implicitly excludes young teenagers from consideration through their status as non-voters. Teenagers’ alternative forms of participation are rarely valued as legitimate acts of civic engagement. As a result, many of the dominant writers on social capital neglect teenagers’ abilities to generate and utilize social capital. Drawing on a three-year research project undertaken with over 600 teenagers aged 13–16, this paper uses three illustrative examples to highlight the ways in which teenagers deploy their social capital in order to transform people and places in two key ways. Firstly, teenagers’ alternative forms of civic engagement are highlighted, demonstrating the ways in which many (re)shape their environments by, for example, campaigning for skate park facilities. Secondly, teenagers’ alternative understandings of community, many of which are associated with lifestyle choices, are explored. In doing so, the paper brings to the fore the significance of teenagers’ social capital.

Acknowledgments

With thanks to the Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group, London South Bank University for organising the ‘Whither Social Capital? Past, Present and Future Conference’, at which this paper was presented. The author also thanks the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Brunel University for funding the research from which this paper stemmed. Thanks also to Prof. Irene Bruegel, Prof Claire Callender, Dr Anne Gray and Jane Franklin for commenting on an earlier version of this paper, and to the anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1. The title of this paper is a play on Putnam's (2000) Bowling Alone. The paper seeks to question some of the claims of the dominant writers on social capital.

2. Years 9, 10 and 11 refer to the last three years of compulsory schooling. Participants were therefore aged 13–16.

3. Students are generally busy studying for General Certificates of Secondary Education during Years 10–11.

4. Participants chose their own pseudonyms, which are used throughout this paper.