Generations, Transitions, and Culture as Practice: A Temporal Approach to Youth Studies

Abstract

Youth studies is a field of research that is by definition concerned with temporal questions. The most common understanding of youth is as a period of transition: a transition of significance not only for young people but also potentially for society as institutions and cultural beliefs are either reproduced or remade (Tilleczek 2011). Research into these transitions focuses on the movement from one status to another and from ‘youth’ to ‘adulthood’, tracing changes in the timing of these transitions over time and comparing the timing across various groups. Research focused less on youth as a period of transition than on the cultural and symbolic practices of young people also has questions of temporality at its core. These cultural practices necessarily unfold over time, and demand the coordination of time between young people. Despite the centrality of time to many of the questions driving cultures and transitions research, this often remains implicit, and because of this, time is under-theorized. The research in youth studies that is explicitly engaged in thinking about temporality tends to be narrow in its focus, researching and debating whether young people plan for the future.