ABSTRACT
We begin this book with some questions: What imaginings of youth exist? How do they work? What do they produce? What do they make possible or impossible? In what forms have youth been imagined, endowed with meaning, and problematized? And how do these imaginings relate to or revitalize other imaginings about, say, society, community, the future, or progress? Our questions direct us to consider the proliferation of social, cultural, economic, institutional, material, and linguistic practices that operate across multiple locations, such as the media, national governments, psychologized advice literature, and international organizations, about problems of youth and how to solve them. Problems can include issues of youth social exclusion, poverty, school underachievement, school violence, gang activity, sexuality, health, or youth's interactions with and uses of media and the internet, and so on. These interconnected practices, familiar but always shifting, sediment and are sedimented by certain ideas of who youth are, who they could or should be, and who they could or should become, especially given the “right” circumstances and opportunities. Consider the following, rather typical, depiction of the “state of affairs” for youth, who are said to face rapid and threatening changes in the context of social and institutional disintegration:
For youth today, change is the name of the game and they are forced to adapt to a rapidly mutating and crisis-ridden world characterized by novel information, computer, and genetic technologies; a complex and fragile global economy; and a frightening era of war and terrorism. According to dominant discourses in the media, politics, and academic research, the everyday life of growing segments of youth is increasingly unstable, violent, and dangerous. The situation of youth is today marked by the dissolution of the family; growing child abuse and domestic conflict; drug and alcohol abuse; sexually transmitted diseases; poor education and crumbling schools; and escalating criminalization, imprisonment, and even state execution. These alarming assaults on youth are combined with massive federal cutbacks of programs that might give youth a chance to succeed in an increasingly difficult world.
(Best & Kellner, 2003, p. 75)