Streams

Mobility Policies and Politics

This stream welcomes papers that discuss youth mobility policies on different types of mobility. Papers might discuss country-specific and international policies and politics, comparative studies, and historical analyses. The analysis of rationales underlying policy is of central interest within this stream.

Mobility and Agency

The body of literature on the agency-structure debate has grown over the last decades. Nevertheless, the field of youth mobility/migration has remained almost untouched in the discussion. It was only within the last decade that research on the intersection of migration and youth studies started paying attention to the question of how young people achieve agency under certain conditions, and which practices they develop under those conditions. For this reason, this stream opens for empirical and theoretical contributions that focus on agency within the contexts of mobility and migration. Related questions could also revolve around political/civic participation, social relations, social networks, and the interconnectedness of life course, transitions and agency.

Social inequality and youth mobility

Mobility and non-mobility of young people closely relate to various dimensions of inequality that are of interest within this stream: inequalities between the EU-/EFTA-countries regarding economic conditions and welfare regimes; inequalities regarding the capacity to be mobile, e.g. formal education, spoken languages, social relations and networks; and inequalities regarding the individual socioeconomic and cultural background, mediating habitus and attitudes.

Regional aspects (focus on post-socialist countries)

This stream welcomes papers that discuss regional aspects of youth mobility/migration, such as specific patterns of mobility in post-socialist countries, changes of youth mobility after Brexit, the inner-European North-South and centre-periphery divisions. We also welcome papers on spatial inequalities and the consequences for regions young people are leaving.

Economy and youth mobility

Papers within this stream focus on incoming and outgoing mobility under an economic perspective and include questions of economic and social development. Empirical papers addressing micro-, meso- and macro-perspectives are also welcome. We are also looking for research on employability and youth unemployment, employment mobility and entrepreneurship on the move, as well as other types of mobility from an economic perspective.

Culture and Youth Mobility

Within this stream, presentations will discuss questions of European and cultural identity, cosmopolitanism and the role of belonging within contexts of youth mobility/migration. We are also looking for papers on (virtual) community building in transnational spaces and practices of (relational) identity building, as well as work on language and other cultural practices.