The Trouble with Belonging...

This chapter teases out the ambivalence about the concept of belonging and the work that this concept is made to do in education studies and in youth studies more broadly. It draws on the work of various authors and recent debates about a political economy of youth. It argues that concerns about belonging ought to be part of a broader political economy of youth that takes into account other economic, social and political actors and agendas. Such a focus would consider, at various times, the ways in which young people make a life, but also the relationships, practices, and structures that shape how young people live their lives and what might be obscured, strange or even alien to these very young people