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Seeds of cosmopolitan future? Young people and their aspirations for future mobility
Skrbis, Zlatko Woodward, Ian Bean, Clive
Skrbis, Zlatko
Woodward, Ian
Bean, Clive
Abstract
Mobility across space is an exemplary characteristic of the global era and an important aspect of the cultural experience of many people in advanced industrialised nations. Mobility evokes powerful images that effectively counter any illusion of stationary life and provide a break from the insularity of the local and parochial. High levels of mobility are simultaneously a fact, a necessity and a cultural aspiration. In recent times, debates about mobility in social theory have considered the relationship between mobility and cosmopolitan culture and identities. Against this backdrop, this paper also draws on some of the more recent discussions about the emergence of globalised and cosmopolitan identities among young people. Using data from a longitudinal study of young people in Queensland, this paper provides an insight into young people's aspirations about future mobility. The data affirm Skeggs’ comment that mobility is an unequal resource, and demonstrate that aspirations of future mobility reflect numerous social, economic and cultural realities of young people's lives. This inevitably leads us to problematise the established, and often abstract, nexus between cosmopolitanism and mobility in contemporary debates about cosmopolitanism.
Keywords
mobility, cosmopolitanism, young people, aspirations
Date
2014
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Youth Studies
Book
Volume
17
Issue
5
Page Range
614-625
Article Number
ACU Department
Non-faculty
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled