Five
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Gender, Solidarity, and Inclusion in Youth Studies Symposium in Turku, Finland. For almost four years, I’ve been following the Finnish Youth Research Society and scholars in Sweden and Finland who keep youth and gender at the heart of their research. Honestly, it was such a rich and inspiring space to exchange ideas with other researchers about the challenges young people face in different contexts and realities.
I shared the results of the “I Will Be” task from my PhD dissertation. For context, my doctoral research aimed to understand the factors and conditions that shape rural youth in contexts where legal and illegal economies coexist, and how these influence their aspirations and life courses. One of the methods I used was the I Will Be task. The idea is to explore the likelihood that young people believe they will experience something in the next 10 years, on a scale of 1 (never) to 10 (certainly). For example: “In 10 years, I will be a doctor.” This method is widely used in youth studies and helps researchers identify young people’s possible selves.
My presentation was the only one based in a different geography, which sparked a lot of curiosity at the symposium. Most of the questions I received focused on the research site, the meaning of agency in contested contexts, and the broader consequences of the results. In other words, what happens in a world where so many young people are growing up amid political turbulence and social unrest?
One theme that resonated throughout the symposium was the idea that, for many young people in the last three decades, imagining who they could be in the future has been a reaffirmation of hope. I still remember the old Mattel Barbie ads with the motto “Be what you want to be.” Yet today, youth everywhere feel anxious about the future and what they might become. Climate change, the rise of AI, and the erosion of strong human connection and community bonds are leaving deep scars. For rural youth in difficult areas, this anxiety comes from living in a world that feels both vast and very small at the same time. Their lives are often shaped by local realities and limited resources (money, education, and social networks) that restrict their ability to dream freely.
All these reflections point to a key truth: youth is a transition. Not just a transition in age, but also in experience, in time, and in how the self is perceived, both as an individual and as part of society.
There are so many fascinating processes unfolding during adolescence, and yet we, as adults, often acknowledge so little of what is really happening. How can youth studies be approached with the curiosity and openness that allow us to be bold, young, and vulnerable to fully collaborate with young people? And what do we need in research to fully understand rural youth aspirations and support their wellbeing? These are just some of the questions that have kept my mind busy over the last four years.
For now, Nordic countries are placing increasing attention on boyhood and girlhood studies, exploring how boys and girls experience mental health, aspirations, migration, and social relationships.
Interesting links:
· A scholarship for Alejo: Speaking of supporting youth, Alejandro counts with your help to finish his studies. More information here: https://gofund.me/cbcbb04ce
· What are Possible Selves? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/well/mind/reinvent-yourself.html
· Thank you to the Gender in Youth Studies network for the invitation to present my paper: https://nuorisotutkimus.fi/en/gender-solidarity-and-inclusion-symposium/
Also, big thanks to my supervisor Dr. Silvia Sarapura for the revisions of the presentation and paper for this symposium and the University of Guelph and the Braithwaite Conference Travel Grant for the support to assist to the conference.
I used AI to correct my grammar and some sentences of the article.
