Rural youth

Abstract

In this chapter we analyse and discuss rural youth’s views of quality of life, how rural youth’s participation in civil society differs from urban youth and rural adults, and what factors affect quality of life for young people across different rural contexts. By combining qualitative interviews and quantitative survey data on rural youth, we elaborate how (1) sociality and proximity and (2) perceptions of the rural are important aspects to understand what characterises and constitutes rural youth’s civil participation in different rural contexts. As rurality is multifaceted, we argue that quality of life in rural communities should be approached with a threefold conceptual architecture: as covering a material dimension, a social dimension, and a representational dimension. These dimensions, in isolation and in a trialectic manner, constitute, support and undermine young people’s quality of life and civil society participation in rural communities. Finally, we discuss how centre-periphery and settlement density constitute different frames for civil society participation. We argue that in order to support quality of life for rural youth, one needs to address rurality as a flow of socio-spatial situations affecting rural youth’s quality of life and their participation in civil society.