Rural Youth, Education, and Citizenship in Sweden: Politics of Recognition and Redistribution

Abstract

When young people are studied in relation to citizenship and education, geographical location is not always considered. When the emplacement of youth is addressed, a disproportional focus on schools and civic youth practices in city settings further mirrors an unreflected urban norm within the field. There is however a burgeoning literature that examines youth, education, and citizenship in rural settings that speaks to issues of the inclusion and participation of young people in society. The current chapter reviews Swedish literature on rural youth and tracks its theoretical and political underpinnings. The areas covered move from stereotypical representations of rurality to rural youths’ experiences and participation in formal and nonformal education to the ways in which neoliberal market logic results in an uneven distribution of educational and employment possibilities for young people on the countryside. The chapter argues that a divided empirical and analytical focus in previous research results in inconclusive arguments regarding the remedies suggested for overcoming geographic inequality. It is posited that a call for the cultural recognition of rural youth’s experiences of marginalization as a remedy for justice needs to be complemented with an argument for economic redistribution.