ABSTRACT
The chapter examines how people theorize and perceive youth activities in turn shape cultural policy and suggest the road forward for more supportive frameworks for youth cultural production. The creative industries in Canada are shaped by particular policy structures and histories that in turn influence how creative work is delineated, but are also affected by global systemic and structural forces. The chapter identifies a number of characteristics in youth navigation and negotiation process of making a living in the creative industries. When youth navigate and negotiate the creative industries, they can also come up against legal barriers due to their lack of knowledge about legal structures, or because legal structures do not speak to small-scale modes of youth creative work. The chapter argues that greater clarity and support for youth might be achieved by fostering a more cohesive framework for youth cultural production through what is known as joined-up policy, policy that groups together disjointed structures under one umbrella.
