Young People in Complex and Unequal Societies : Doing Youth Studies in Spain and Latin America

Youth studies in Latin America and Spain face numerous challenges. This book delves into youth experiences in the 21st century, shaped by complex and pressing issues: the surge of youth cultures and groups, visual images of youth throughout time, and fragmented youth experiences in radically unequal societies. It analyzes young people as precarious natives in global capitalism and labor uncertainty, juvenicide, feminist discourse, social networks, intimacy and sexual affection among young people in a context of growing claims of gender equality. Also included are rural and indigenous youth as political actors, the actions of young political activists within government administrations, the experience of youth migration and empowerment, and young people dealing with the digital world. How have youth studies approached these issues in Latin America and Spain? Which were the main developments and transformations in this research field over the past years? Where is it heading?

Contributors are: Jorge Benedicto, Maritza Urteaga, Dolores Rocca, José Antonio Pérez Islas, Juan Carlos Revilla, Mariano Urraco, Almudena Moreno, Óscar Aguilera, Marcela Saá, Rafael Merino, Ana Miranda, Carles Feixa, Gonzalo Saraví, Antonio Santos-Ortega, David Muñoz-Rodríguez, Arantxa Grau-Muñoz, José Manuel Valenzuela, Silvia Elizalde, Mónica Figueras, Mittzy Arciniega, Nele Hansen, Tanja Strecker, Elisa G. de Castro, Melina Vázquez, René Unda, Daniel Llanos, Sonia Páez de la Torre, Pere Soler, Daniel Calderón, and Stribor Kuric.

Jorge Benedicto is Full Professor of Sociology at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain). He has been a Visiting Researcher at University of Florence (Italy) and L’Observatoire Jeunes et Societé of INRS (Quebec, Canada). He specializes in research on youth, citizenship and politics. He is a former consultant of OIJ and UNDP-Honduras.

Maritza Urteaga holds a Ph.D. in Anthropological Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM, Mexico). She is a Research Professor of Postgraduate Studies in Social Anthropology at the National School of Anthropology and History. Her research focuses on anthropology of youth, urban anthropology, identity, culture and communication, cultural production, youth and affectivity.

Dolores Rocca holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA, Argentina) and a degree in Political Science (UBA). She is a Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and at the Gino Germani Research Institute (IIGG-UBA). Her research interests are political activism, youth participation, political identities, electoral campaigns, and qualitative research.