Disrupting the Chrononormativity of Geographies of Youth and Youth Studies: Learning From Infractions at the Border

Abstract

The overlapping academic fields of geographies of youth and youth studies are defined by what counts as ‘youth’, but how important are age categories to maintaining their boundaries? Descriptions of infractions at the border act as provocations for examining how the normalisation of ages and stages such as ‘youth’ constitute chrononormativities that are implicitly ‘westernised’ and culturally blind. I curate conceptual resources for disrupting chrononormativity and narrow ways of thinking about generation and intergenerational responsibilities to make the case for why this matters in climate-altered worlds. I make two separate but related interventions. First, I critique how youth scholars and youth journals currently conceive of ‘youth’ drawing on Indigenous scholarship. I then demonstrate why this matters by challenging the pervasive discourse that climate change is a recent problem for ‘younger generations’ to solve. The research reviewed here charts a useful path forward for geographers and other scholars to resist and reconfigure youth/adult dualities and broader chrononormativities, building on scholarship stipulating the necessity of intergenerational dialogue, justice, and solidarity in climate activism that is also informed by decolonial theories and principles.