Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of young people, transforming and disrupting education provision, employment opportunities, social practices, mobilities, and experiences of health and well-being. In the UK context, the pandemic can be understood as both a unique event and as a further addition to the intersecting crises—including austerity and Brexit—that are increasingly shaping and constraining youth experiences and aspirations and exacerbating precarity and inequality. In this article, seven undergraduate students from Manchester, UK, with two academic co-authors, employ a co-productive approach to reflect on our experiences of the pandemic. Our autoethnographic accounts draw attention to the situated effects of the pandemic, and its intersection with existing challenges and pressures, including the gig economy, mental and physical ill health, and transnational family networks. At the same time, our narratives capture a sense of precarious hope: hopefulness that is both a product of precarity and itself precarious, opening up new possibilities for collectively imagining and pursuing viable and meaningful futures in uncertain times. Supporting our endeavours requires the inclusion of youth voices in research, policy, and practice; work we begin here.
Highlights
Since it was first identified in late 2019, COVID-19 has quickly and radically transformed life globally
While precarity is primarily conceptualised in relation to the labour market, we argue that it transcends this context to characterise a wide range of contemporary relations
Reflecting emerging research on youth experiences of the pandemic (e.g. Bengtsson et al 2021; Burns et al 2020; Cook et al 2021), education, employment, and mental health surfaced as key concerns
Summary
Since it was first identified in late 2019, COVID-19 has quickly and radically transformed life globally. In the UK, where the pandemic has been severe, this has included dramatic changes to education, high rates of unemployment, and ruptures in key life-stage transitions, social relations, and leisure practices, with concomitant effects on mental health and wellbeing (Prince’s Trust 2021; Gabriel et al 2021) While this constellation of challenges is unique to the COVID-19 crisis, many issues were pre-existing, rendered visible or further exacerbated by the pandemic. Young people report significant declines in mental health since the start of the pandemic, including increased anxiety and reduced ability to cope with life (Prince’s Trust 2021; Beatfreeks 2020). The vignettes below focus on a range of aspects of our experiences during the pandemic, reflecting our situated perspectives These include education and (un) employment, the complexities of transnational lives, and managing physical and mental health. It is through self-growth and development that I have enhanced myself and am on my own route that makes me happy
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