Phenomenology of Youth Cultures and Globalization: Lifeworlds and Surplus Meaning in Changing Times.

摘要

Youth research has long revolved around postmodern interpretations of young people's experiences; the overwhelming focus of youth studies has been identity formation, individualization, and the various ways young people construct their lives separately from the structures and histories that shape them. Largely, the driving question of youth research is: How do young people make sense of their (postmodern) lives? Throughout Phenomenology of Youth Cultures and Globalization, editors Stuart Poyntz and Jacqueline Kennelly take a different perspective as they aim to "resuscitate and recuperate phenomenology as a robust empirical, theoretical and methodological approach to youth cultures" (p. 1). The editors assert that phenomenology has informed many empirical approaches to youth cultures, but its role has not been acknowledged by the larger field, especially since postmodernism has been the primary lens through which youth studies scholars view the worlds they inquire about. Hence, this edited collection draws from phenomenology in order to explore the specific role of globalization in young people's lives, especially those living in various regions and under diverse conditions around the world. In an attempt to re-orient youth research away from postmodernism, Poyntz and Kennelly rely on scholars such as Heidegger, Arendt, Merleau-Ponty, and Ricoeur to make a clear and logical case that many experiences in life are universal, and individuality can be reduced to a description and a phenomenon of human experience. In investigating collective experiences of young people globally, the book reveals the situations, tensions, and opportunities that give contour to youth experience.