The paper provides the conceptual and analytical background for the thematic Working Package number 4 "Youth cultures: values, representations and social conditions". It shows the relevance of the cultural dimension in the study of youth condition, in order to understand young people's actions and to recognise youth agency. Nowadays, the transition to adulthood takes place in the context of growing uncertainty and deep social, cultural and political transformations also in contemporary Arab Mediterranean societies.The first part of the paper defines the conceptual framework for the study of youth agency and cultures. After reconstructing the development of the reflexion on youth and youth cultures by sociology and social science from the 1920s to the 2000s, it focuses on the main topics, trends and gaps of contemporary studies on youth cultures in Western contexts and in Arab Mediterranean countries. The second part of the paper outlines the research questions and analytical dimension that will guide the research in WP4. The main questions can be summarised as follows:How the cultural construction of youth is changing in Arab Mediterranean countries? To what extent does youth appear as a condition marked by specific cultural expressions and subjectivities, rather than a mere transitional stage of life? How do the changes in the transition to adulthood impact on the emergence of new cultural trends among Arab youths? Which are the strategies that young men and women deploy for constructing their identity, shaping their biographical projects and giving meaning to their social world, in the changing contexts of Arab Mediterranean countries?
RESUMENLos jóvenes catalanes en Londres construyen su propia identidad como inmigrantes en estrecha dialéctica entre los imaginarios sobre la inmigración de su país de origen y las percepciones de los ingleses sobre ellos. Ante el estigma negativo asociado a la categoría «inmigrante» no todos se reconocen como tales. Algunos simplemente rechazan reconocerse en esta categoría, mientras que otros utilizan como estrategia la proyección de los prejuicios sobre los inmigrantes hacia los españoles, de los cuales se distancian al establecer la distinción entre catalanes y españoles.Palabras clave: Emigración; Juventud; Europa; Transnacionalismo; Narrativas culturales; Identidades.
SUMMARYYoung Catalans in London build their identity as immigrants in a close dialectic between their own imaginary about immigration in their country of origin and British perceptions of them. Given the negative stigma attached to the category of «immigrant», not all recognise themselves as such. Some simply refuse to acknowledge they belong to this category, while others use the projection of prejudices on immigrants towards Spaniards as a strategy from which they distance themselves by establishing a distinction between Catalans and Spaniards.
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