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Dear Colleagues,

as part of the forthcoming RC21 Conference *Rethinking Urban Global Justice*
(September 11-13, Leeds, UK), we are organising a session titled: *Global
Urban Youth in the Midst of Precarization of Life: Towards the Formulation
of New Claims For Social Justice*. Please see below for further details.

We welcome abstracts of between 300 - 500 words, which should be sent to
the conference organisers (*[log in to unmask]* <[log in to unmask]>) *AND* to
ourselves: [log in to unmask]

The deadline for abstract submission is *Friday 10 March 2017*. Further
details can be found on the conference website:
*https://rc21leeds2017.wordpress.com/80-global-urban-youth-in-the-midst-of-precarization-of-life-towards-the-formulation-of-new-claims-for-social-justice/*
<https://rc21leeds2017.wordpress.com/>


Best wishes,

Stefania Animento (Universitá di Milano Bicocca)

Nina Margies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Hannah Schilling (Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin)

Eleni Triantafyllopoulou (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

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*Global Urban Youth in the Midst of Precarization of Life: Towards the
Formulation of New Claims For Social Justice*


“*Youth make up the core of the precariat and will have to take the lead in
forging a viable future for it. Youth has always been the repository of
anger about the present and the harbinger of a better tomorrow”* (Standing
2011: 113).

While claims for social justice and against increasing precariousness in
the lives of many urbanites are en vogue, research on urban inequalities
has been late in putting the focus on youth as one of the groups mostly
faced with multiple forms of precarization (see e.g. Comaroff & Comaroff
2005; Blossfeld et al. 2011). Urban youth are increasingly working in
atypical and insecure employment, which makes it difficult for them to meet
the expectations of an independent adult life. Precarization in work thus
spreads into other realms of their urban life, such as housing and
affective social relations. At the same time, urban youth have more chances
to grasp resources through the fluid network of social infrastructures
which make up the “urban vortex" in which they live (Hall & Savage 2016).

Our panel explores the new life and labour conditions of young urban
residents. More specifically, we want to investigate how youth in urban
settings across the globe deal with precariousness in their daily life.
More concretely, we see new lines of inequality arising according to the
different forms of access to resources, knowledge, goods and education,
which are important to address. We welcome paper submissions from most
varying contexts across the urban world which problematize precarious youth
in regard to consequences for social justice in cities.

On the basis of such comparative picture of urban youth today, our panel
aims to develop new claims for social justice. This means to open up a
discussion about the living conditions of the next urban generations, in
order to formulate alternatives to the dystopian scenarios.


*References:*

Blossfeld et al. (eds) (2011). *Youth on globalised labour markets : rising
uncertainty and its effects on early employment and family lives in Europe*.
Opladen: Budrich.

Comaroff, J. & Comaroff, J. (2005). Reflections on Youth. From the Past to
the Postcolony. In *Children and Youth in Africa*. DeBoeck, F. and A.
Honwana (eds.), 19–30.

Hall, S. & Savage, M. (2016). Animating the Urban Vortex: New Sociological
Urgencies. *International Journal of Urban and Regional Research*, 40 (1),
82-95.
Standing, G. (2011). *The precariat: The new dangerous class*. London:
Bloomsbury.

--
Stefania Animento
PhD candidate in Urban and Local European Studies
https://www.bgss.hu-berlin.de/de/bgss/people/students/animento_stefania

Department of Sociology and Social Research
University of Milano Bicocca

Department of Urban and Regional Sociology
Humboldt University Berlin

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