Young People and Local Power Geometries in Helsinki. The Intertwining of Social Class, Gender and Ethnicity in Public Spaces

Abstract

In the urban public spaces of Helsinki, Finland, the pluralistic cultural and social practices of young people and the authorities repeatedly take place. This chapter looks at a selected area of Helsinki, one where the population varies and where questions of social class, ethnicity and gender are not just intertwined but are made visible through a contested use of public spaces, in which different ‘power geometries’ (Massey, Space, place and gender. Polity Press, Cambridge UK, 1994) are traced. As well as contextualizing these cases within the formal state, such as Government Acts on education, youth work, gender equality and the current political atmosphere, I assume that the building of respectable and active citizenship takes place in informal social relations. These processes of building ‘urban citizenship’ (Gordon, Urban citizenship. In: Pink WT, Noblit GW (eds), International handbook of urban education Springer, Dordrecht, p 447–462, 2007) are here investigated through the power geometries, and balances formed in different urban spaces, including schools, youth clubs, shopping centre and the streets in one specific area of Helsinki. The belonging to, or marginalization from, urban space is closely connected to social, ethnic and gendered orders. The everyday social orders of who is who, and who is respected and valued, are built into these different urban sites, orders that intertwine with gender, ethnicity and social class.