Session theme: Youth, Geographies and School in "Transition" (Fachsitzung RE-FS-28)

Organizers: Sara Landolt and Itta Bauer (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

Kurzabstract:

The session intends to start a fruitful dialogue between the different theoretical conceptualizations, empirical examples and practical schemes relating to the complex dimensions of young people, geographies and education that are considered to be in a state of permanent "transition".

Abstract

To young people, "transitions" - understood as non-/linear projects and changes (e.g. childhood/youth), in-/formal learning contexts, school/work) - are just as much a crucial part of everyone`s individual biography as they are also an every-day experience.

Particularly in selective eductional systems, certain institutionalized points of entry or maybe even points "no-return" (e.g. the entry into compulsory schooling, the move from primary to secondary education or the beginning of payed work) impressively reveal the inqual preconditions as well as the long-term effects of these important rites of passage and switch stands.

For the panel, we would like to invite papers that point out new impulses to the theoretical discourse as well as the methodological practice of research on "transition". On the other hand, it is our intent to grant enough space and time in order to discuss and reflect the importance and relevance of recent empirical work on transition and youth in general. In the panel-discussion following the paper presentations, the organizers strive for an inclusionary dialgue across disciplinary borders that will bring together the theoretical and practical sides of research as well as the inspiring ideas and stimulations from projects engaging with young people experiencing transition in the widest sense of the word.

We would like to encourage papers on the following topics (although this is no "exclusionary" list and the organizers may also accept papers on related issues)

Transition and Youth from a geographical perspective:
·   How are "transitions" relating to young people being conceptualized? What`s geography`s contribution?
·   How do young people design, perform or sustain transitions and personal identites?
·   In which ways are "youth in transition" influenced by migration and mobility?

Education in Transition
·   How important or meaningful are educational or geographical changes and procedures of selection for young people and their families?
·   In which ways are young people`s "school-geographies" affected or attached to different or changing spatial, medial, socio-cultural or socio-material contexts?
·   How can schools contribute to improving "transition-management" for students either entering or leaving school?

Geographies of/in Transition
·   In which ways can schools and young people cooperate in order to become vital parts of their neighbourhood?
·   What are the relationships between educational transitions, changing classes and processes of peer formation and identity relating to young people?
·   How are geographies of young people being performed and assembled? What conclusions are to be drawn for teaching geography differently?

For further questions, please contact:

Itta Bauer
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Sara Landolt
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