Youth, leisure, lifestyles and identities: mountain biking in the English countryside

Abstract

The relationship between youth and society has been the subject of study by cultural theorists for decades. Research on youth identities conventionally considered how they were defined through families, education and labour market experiences. Recently, however, the focus has turned to the ways in which young people construct their identities, founded on spaces of leisure experience, consumption and lifestyle. These dimensions are brought together in the practice of „lifestyle‟ sports which highlight the importance of leisure as part of identity formation, performance and display, and have been linked with youth culture. In this thesis it is argued, however, that debates within youth leisure and lifestyles sports have understated the relationship between youth, sport participation and space drawing upon geographical research as part of the investigations into these claims.

Date of Award	Jun 2009
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton