Young People’s Urban Im/Mobilities: Relationality and Identity Formation

Abstract

There is a mobility turn in the social sciences affecting how we scrutinise, research and represent the city. In recent scholarship on mobilities, global human mobilities have been identified as predominant. Nevertheless there have been calls for research that focuses on issues relating to everyday transportation, materialities and the spatial contexts of im/mobilities. This article is a response to those calls with a specific focus on young people's local experiences of urban im/mobilities. It is also a challenge to the lack of attention afforded young people by urban studies. Young urbanites are of an age where personal physical mobility to take advantage of all the resources, recreation and sociality offered by an urban landscape is an important part of 'growing up' and identity formation. Utilising two of mobility studies' conceptualisations, relationality and identity formation, this article examines young Aucklanders' im/mobilities through urban space.

Picturing Halifax: Young Immigrant Women and the Social Construction of Urban Space

“…Aiming to address the lack of focus on young people in urban studies, Skelton (2013) demonstrates the importance of young people's mobility in identity formation through a case study of Auckland, New Zealand. She argues that for young people, whose lives are typically characterized by transitional periods, mobility between different spaces is integral to achieving independence, sustaining relationships, and 'growing up' (Skelton 2013). The strength of Skelton's (2013) argument stems from the 81 semi-structured interviews conducted with young urban dwellers, allowing them to describe their subjective experiences.…”

Circulations and the Entanglements of Citizenship Formation

“…Likewise, mobility features prominently in the literature on children and young people's geographies (e.g., Barker et al 2009). In both such instances, however, mobility is used somewhat generically to refer to a broad array of phenomena ranging from the dissemination of policy through global governance networks, to young people's experiences of transnational migration (e.g., Hopkins and Alexander 2010) and the everyday movement of young people to and from home, school, and elsewhere (e.g., Harker 2009;Skelton 2013;Horton et al 2014). Such research has been fruitfully informed by a "new mobilities paradigm" that emphasizes the relational character of mobility and immobility (Adey 2006;Hannam et al 2006;Sheller and Urry 2006).…”

Considering daily mobility for a more comprehensive understanding of contextual effects on social inequalities in health: A conceptual proposal

“…Access is also regulated by conditions which Hägerstrand has called "authority constraints" or "those general rules, laws, economic barriers, and power relationships that determine who does or does not have access to specific domains at specific times" (Pred, 1977 p.208). These conditions may include, for instance, price and rights mechanisms (Bernard et al, 2007, Golledge andStimson, 1997), as well as norms (Baldassare, 1978, Jiron, 2007, Skelton, 2013, Reynolds, 2013. As an outcome of price mechanisms, for example, high quality resources such as healthy foods, which are usually priced higher than unhealthy foods, are less accessible to low income groups.…”

“…On the other hand, expenses involved in travelling distances to access more affordable high-quality resources may deter people from doing so (Skelton, 2013). Environmental features of the residential neighbourhood, such as land use mix, and density of destinations and resources, have also been associated with varying levels of mobility (Kestens et al, 2010).…”

“…income or education) (Krivo et al, 2013, Kestens et al, 2010, Christian, 2012, Paez et al, 2010, or one's relation to others (e.g. social network) (Skelton, 2013, McPherson et al, 2001, Matthews et al, 2005, White and Green, 2010, have all been related to this dimension of mobility patterns. In the L.A.FANS study, people of lower educational attainment conducted activities in more disadvantaged areas than their more educated counterparts (Krivo et al, 2013).…”