Post modern metaphors of youth in Calgary

Date
2012
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Abstract
This study takes up the notion of metaphors of postmodern identity and explores these with respect to the life experiences of fifteen-year-olds in two different high schools in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Situated within the first year of a three-year SSHRC-funded study designed to examine citizenship and identity of youth, the analysis takes up some of the data collected from the participants; namely, socio-demographic information; photos of places where the participants felt included/excluded, safe/at risk, collected in what are termed 'photoscapes'; urban maps of their preferred locations in each of four urban quadrants, downtown, and beyond the city. Interviews throughout the data collection process provided clarifications and reflexivity between participants and researchers. My analysis reveals that the five metaphors of postmodern identity, as proposed by Baumann (1996), i.e., Tourist, Vagabond, Pilgrim, Player, and Flaneur, are taken up by some youth participating in this research project. Moreover, additional metaphors of identity were taken up by some other participants, those of Citizen and Fashionista, as well as combined metaphors. For educators and researchers, this analysis provides starting points for further explorations and understandings of metaphoric identity orientations to society within an economic market approach to knowledge. For adolescents and youth, the research process provided a vehicle for further exploration of self and other, and for their quest of a place in the world. Furthermore, much discussion ensued with each other, the research team and contact teachers, all nourishing their youthful quests. The differentiation of youth in terms of their metaphoric identifications has been attempted by many authors, each from their own perspectives, just as my analysis is influenced by my own subjectivities as experienced teacher. The originality of the participants illustrates the need for qualitative studies to bring to bear both data and analyses, so as to further explore philosophical proposals and observations.
Description
Bibliography: p. 117-123
Some pages are in colour.
Missing all apendices A-G.
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Citation
Hartley, W. J. (2012). Post modern metaphors of youth in Calgary (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4785
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