Les jeunes dans les espaces de faible densité : D’une expérience de l’autonomie au risque de la « captivité »

• Main Authors: Fabrice Escaffre, Mélanie Gambino, Lionel Rougé
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ecole Nationale de Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse 2008-04-01
• Series: Sociétés et Jeunesses en Difficulté
• Subjects: mobility; autonomy; sparsely populated areas; youngsters; territory; youth sociability
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/sejed/1383

Youth in sparsely populated areas : from experiencing autonomy to a risk of « captivity »Based on the conclusion of three different researches, this article deals with young inhabitants’ everyday life in sparsely populated areas (peripheral areas of Toulouse and Périgord vert). For this population, the relationship with place is central for the organization of their ways of life and their social relationships. Mobilities in particular are of importance because of their strong influence on their sociability and their relationships with studies or work. Social representations also invite to consider that what is at stake concerning number of young people is their own relation with place and with mobility. In this way, the three territorial figures described (the trap, the rampart and the claimed area) can be use as framework to analyse singular experiences.Such observations, certainly still thin, question the direction of implemented public policies and their modifications, particularly in sparsely populated areas torn between a valorisation and a spatial integration, and dynamics of social relegation.