Pääpuhujat ja panelistit

David Farrugia, ARC DECRA Fellow (School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle) on australialainen nuorisotutkija, jonka tutkimuksen keskiössä ovat nuorten identiteetteihin, eriarvoisuuteen ja hyvinvointiin liittyvät kysymykset. Hän on tutkinut mm. nuorten kodittomuutta ja työttömyyden kokemuksia. Toisen keskeisen juonteen Farrugian tutkimuksessa muodostavat globalisaatio ja alueellinen eriarvoisuus. Farrugia on kritisoinut nuorisotutkimuksen kaupunkikeskeistä tutkimustraditiota ja nostanut esiin maaseudun nuorten elämän pakkovalinnat. 

Abstrakti: Rurality as a Silence of Youth Research - Mobility, Spatiality and Youth

In this presentation I explore the silencing of rurality in youth research as a constitutive exclusion for theoretical development in the field. The epistemological devalorisation of rurality has a long history, dating back to classical sociological theories which positioned the urban as the site for the development of capitalism and of modernity as such. This continues in theoretical debates in youth studies, which tend to use the experiences of young people in the metropolitan cities of economically powerful countries as touchstones for discussions of youth in general. With this in mind, in this presentation I suggest that rurality is not merely an empirical gap, but rather a new epistemological position for understanding youth, and that the position that rural youth occupy within the global dynamics of capital and culture reveals new and critical agendas for youth studies. This includes rural youth labour markets as sites of global economic restructuring, and the operation of metrocentric economies of cultural distinction that organise the symbolic flows of contemporary youth culture around distinctions between the urban and the rural. In this context, I will describe a mobility imperative as a key dimension of the relationship between youth and rurality, and explore rural youth mobilities as a means by which to generate new perspectives on youth in a global context. The imperative on young people to become mobile both imaginatively and in terms of actual migration is a critical dimension of the structural and symbolic dimensions of contemporary youth, and reveals youth as a heterogeneous and mobile phenomenon deeply connected with the economic and cultural dynamics of contemporary globalisation.

Punaisen Ristin turvatalotoiminnan johtaja ja Suomen Atemian hallituksen varapuheenjohtaja, dosentti Leena Suurpää on Nuorisotutkimusverkoston pitkäaikainen tutkimusjohtaja. Hänen työssään yhdistyvät tutkimuksen ja kansalaistoiminnan eetokset. Suurpää on tutkinut mm. monikulttuurisuutta, nuorten osallisuutta, nuorisotyötä sekä nuorisotutkimuksen menetelmiä ja eettisiä kysymyksiä. Nuorisotutkimuspäivien puheenvuorossaan Suurpää avaa reflektiivisen näkökulman kotimaisen ja eurooppalaisen nuorisotutkimuksen pitkiin linjoihin: mistä nuorisotutkijat puhuvat, mistä vaikenevat – ja mistä pitäisi puhua?

Abstrakti: Polyphony as a contested virtue in youth research

The vocation of youth research, in Finland and abroad, has been premised on a certain idea of polyphony. In this context, the concept of polyphony does not refer only to mobility across disciplinary paradigms or to thematic diversity. More importantly, it implies a unique research ethos, an engagement and a research design. In my speech, I will reflect upon contemporary conditions for polyphony in the field of youth research with three different aims in mind:

1) To expand sensible perspectives to youth issues: I argue for the promotion of global attentiveness that re-considers the epistemic foundation of youth research, in order challenge provincialism, be it intellectual or geopolitical.

2) To promote critical awareness to rethink the knowledge produced and disseminated around the youth: I argue for the commitment to multisensory, embodied knowledge when youth-related issues are at stake.

3) To guarantee youth researcher engagement at the local, societal and global scale: I argue for the fight for the freedom of expression of the youth researchers all over the world.