Abstract
This chapter engages social research to explore how celebrity functions within young people’s lives. Countering public debates which position celebrity simplistically as pushing young people predictably along “good” or “bad” pathways, the chapter offers a conceptualization of celebrity as a resource within young people’s “identity play” through which they make sense of different kinds of mobility. It begins with an overview of the key debates around “media effects,” before discussing a more recent body of literature on young people’s engagement with popular culture and celebrity. Extending this work, the chapter draws on examples from a recent research study on celebrity culture and young people in England to identify the ways in which celebrity is used by young people as they make sense of different kinds of mobilities and transitions, both imagined and “real”: age and maturity, gender and sexuality, and social status.
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Allen, K., Mendick, H. (2016). Popular Culture, Identity “Play,” and Mobilities: Young People and Celebrity. In: Evans, B., Horton, J., Skelton, T. (eds) Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-51-4_14
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