Buscando un lugar en el mundo

Abstract

This article analyses the way in which Spanish youth pictures the future. In particular it examines the way in which the crisis has overturned long-held certainties regarding the prospects of adult life as affecting the search for a place in society. A recurring question is «if not here, where?», a sharp departure from the spatial framework in which they picture their lives in the short and medium terms. The normalisation of a global space and the acceptance of migration—whether as a possibility, a desire or an imposition—only adds to the complexity and the breakdown of pathways of transition to adult life. The empirical material used in the study comes from letters written by students at Spanish public universities relating how they view life and their plans for the future.

Keywords

• Spain
• citizenship
• youth
• crisis
• future
• space