D. Massey Resources

Massey, D. (1998). The spatial construction of youth cultures. In Skelton, T. & Valentine, G. (eds.). (1998). Cool places: Geographies of Youth Culture, 120-129. London & New York: Routledge.

OVERVIEW

This writer was filming in Yucatan, Mexico, interviewing a group of women sitting on stones on an earthen floor of their backed mud wall and thatched roof house making tortillas (corn bread) as they had always done while in another building equipped with electricity children were playing computer games. Side by side an indigenous culture coexisted with a new culture among the children. "Electronic noises, American slang and bits of Western music floated off into the nighttime jungle."

"Doreen Massey argues that youth culture are not closed local cultures, nor are they undifferentiated global cultures, but rather that they are in fact complex ‘products of interaction.’ "

When young people in Guatemala sport clothing makes clearly as "from the USA" (or—ironically—with an "American" logo and trademark emblazoned upon it but in fact quite likely made in Guatemala, a T-shirt quite likely sewn by the mother of the Guatemalan kids themselves) they are tapping into, displaying their knowledge of, their claimed connection with, that dominant culture to the north…

…(For) a middle class white youngster in the United States to wear the brightly coloured textiles of Guatemala (a wrist band or a jacket perhaps) has a very different meaning and embodies and expresses very different social relations.

The colors of Rasta, sported by millions on both sides of the Atlantic, from Boston to Rio, from London to Cape Town, were a deliberately visible sign of belonging, maybe even of commitment.

A map of the world would certainly reveal some parts of the world as foci of more powerful influences than others. More modestly, the exercise might be tried for a particular youth culture, in order to capture the geography of influences (both inward and outward), their evolution over time, and the power relationships which they embody.

This writer further discusses the human tendency to "territorialize space" for a variety of reasons. It can being a kind of security amidst confusing spaces… "a way of gaining some control." It may also be "an expression of attempts to dominate, and to control and define others."

Authorities may create rule for spatial ordering by age and other criteria:

• Teenagers not allowed into children’s playgrounds.
• Teenagers not allowed into certain places for adult drinking or sexual activities.

When teenagers, on the other hand, choose a particular turf or territory for their activities, they are defining space from within their subculture. The writer concludes:

On the one hand, the apparently endless process of the carving up of space and the claiming of it for one’s own, and on the other hand the undeniable interconnectedness of any space, or any culture, with others even on the other side of the world.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Do you see a relationship between space and cultures?
2. Is "turf" or a place to hang out with friends a part of this?
3. Do you understand the interconnectedness of space and culture described by this author?
4. How does this article relate to Globalization and a global youth culture?
5. How does a youthful subculture you know create its space and show interconnectedness with other cultures?

IMPLICATIONS

• Youth workers and all of us need to be increasingly aware of cultural factors and sensitivities.
• Effective communication with young people involves entering their cultures.
• The interconnectedness of cultures tell us important, and sometimes painful, issues of power relationships.