Figures of the global: Mobility journeys of international school pupils

Abstract

Existing accounts of global youth mobility frame this as an experience that is out of ordinary, through which young people acquire social and cultural capital. This paper focuses instead on how young people in international schools in England understand their experiences of global mobility. It utilises an innovative methodology where participants were asked to design cartoons about global citizenship. Bringing together literatures on journeys and becomings, the paper examines how the global is represented by young people in the cartoons through scenes and characters. By looking at how the characters interact with scenes and other characters, the paper argues that these act as representations of space–time in international school pupils' global mobility journeys. Through this, the paper demonstrates how this group of mobile young people represent global mobility as a normal experience, which raises wider geographical questions about the intersections between youth and mobility.