‘Negotiation, navigation, resistance - young people's agency in post-crisis reality in Europe'

September 10th-13th 2014, in Kluszkowce, near Krakow, Poland

Call for papers

Young people have been hit harshly by the economic crisis in Europe, mostly by the difficult labour market situation, which has impacted their transitions, their quality of life and also the feelings of security. Consequently, in recent years, the analysis within youth studies has paid much attention to the structural conditions of young people lives and resulting inequalities. To counterbalance this tendency, though not to undermine the impact of structural conditions on young people's lives, we propose to consider young people as active agents, to examine the ways they might overcome/reconstruct/renegotiate the constellations within which they live their lives. The conference encourages the debate on tensions and interrelations between structure and agency in young people's lives, while also concentrating on re-discovering youth agency within European youth studies, looking at young people as a dynamic body or as individuals finding the spaces for self-expression and change, or as initiators of conflicts or protests. Youth as a life stage has been associated with boldness and rebellion, as well as innovation, imagination, fun or creativity; to what extent do the current conditions allow for the expression and realisation of these values by young people? Do we find spaces where youth agency is being realised and encouraged? Do we see new forms of youth self-expressions? What kinds of constraints prevail?

Objectives:
- To raise discussions of youth agency and its expressions within the post-crisis reality
- To identify the proactive strategies undertaken by young people and their social spaces
- To discuss the tensions between structural and agency-based approaches to studying young people lives
- To analyse diverse methodological approaches to study youth agency and allowing self-expression of young people, giving young people voice in research

Key note speakers:
We will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Alan France from University of Auckland in New Zealand and Professor Krystyna Szafraniec, from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.

Call for papers deadline:
Participants interested in giving a paper are invited, in the first instance, to submit abstracts to both Aurelie Mary (aurelie.mary@uta.fi) and Ewa Krzaklewska (ewa.krzaklewska@uj.edu.pl) by 20th March 2014.

The information requested during abstract submission include:
1) name(s), affiliation(s) and email of all the author(s);
2) contact details of presenting author (postal address, and telephone in addition to email);
3) title of proposed presentation;
4) abstract text up to 300 words;
5) indication of the type of fee you would prefer (individual or double room);
6) information for the invoice.

Successful applicants will be notified after the completion of abstract review by the Board of Youth and Generation Research Network. As the conference has a seminar format with longer times assigned to each presentation (25 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for discussion), a maximum of 40 persons will be accepted as conference participants.

Location and conference fee:
The conference venue is located in the Polish mountains in Osada Czorsztyn – in Kluszkowce (read more athttp://www.osada.czorsztyn.pl/). Some participants will be accommodated nearby in Willa Jordanówka.

The transport from Krakow to the conference venue is organised by the local organisers and the costs are included in the conference fee. There will be a bus transport from the airport and/or city center to the conference location and back. The bus will depart from the city center at 5pm. The airport you should fly to is Krakow Airport. Please make sure your flight arrives to Krakow before 4pm on the 10th of September.

The fee for the conference is 280 Euros (for a single room) and 230 Euros (for a double room – spaces limited) which includes conference fee, accommodation, food and transfers between Krakow and the conference venue. The fee has to be paid through the bank transfer only after received information on acceptance of abstract. Unavoidably international bank transfer charges have to be paid by the applicant. Please note that all accepted participants will be required to be (or become ) members of ESA and affiliate members of the Youth and Generation network in order to be able to participate in the conference.

Organisation:
Youth & Generation ESA Research Network

Local organiser: The Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland ul. Grodzka 52, 31-044 Kraków

Contact: Ewa Krzaklewska, ewa.krzaklewska[at]uj.edu.pl the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland