ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on friendships as one of the key aspects in the everyday lives of young men in rural Estonia, and emphases the role of place in negotiating and performing young men's friendships. While the psychological approach to studying young people and their peer relations has been concerned primarily with the impact of friendship on youth's immediate well-being and on their transitions to adulthood, importantly for the chapter, social scientists have also highlighted the central role of friendships in young people's ongoing negotiation of their social identities. The chapter draws on Gibson's theory of affordances as a starting point for exploring relations between identity performance and space. Gibson argues that elements in the environment have functional significance for individuals and can afford various opportunities for action and interaction. Young rural men in their study actively performed different dimensions of masculinities in relation to available physical resources and social groups in both locations.
