UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

Postmodern Metaphors of Identity of Youth in Calgary

by

William J. Hartley

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE DIVISION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

CALGARY, ALBERTA

DECEMBER 2011

© William J. Hartley 2011

 Approval Page

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies

for acceptance, a thesis entitled "Post Modern Metaphors of Youth in Calgary" submitted by

William Hartley in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts

Supervisor, Dr. Yvonne Hébert, Faculty of Education

Dr. Yan Guo, Faculty of Education

Dr. Shaobo Xie, Department of English

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 Abstract

This study takes up the notion of metaphors of postmodern identity and explores these with

respect to the life experiences of fifteen-year-olds in two different high schools in Calgary,

Alberta, Canada. Situated within the first year of a three-year SSHRC-funded study designed to

examine citizenship and identity of youth, the analysis takes up some of the data collected from

the participants; namely, socio-demographic information; photos of places where the participants

felt included/excluded, safe/at risk, collected in what are termed ‘photoscapes’; urban maps of

their preferred locations in each of four urban quadrants, downtown, and beyond the city.

Interviews throughout the data collection process provided clarifications and reflexivity between

participants and researchers. My analysis reveals that the five metaphors of postmodern identity,

as proposed by Baumann (1996), i.e., Tourist, Vagabond, Pilgrim, Player, and Flâneur, are taken

up by some youth participating in this research project. Moreover, additional metaphors of

identity were taken up by some other participants, those of Citizen and Fashionista, as well as

combined metaphors. For educators and researchers, this analysis provides starting points for

further explorations and understandings of metaphoric identity orientations to society within an

economic market approach to knowledge. For adolescents and youth, the research process

provided a vehicle for further exploration of self and other, and for their quest of a place in the

world. Furthermore, much discussion ensued with each other, the research team and contact

teachers, all nourishing their youthful quests. The differentiation of youth in terms of their

metaphoric identifications has been attempted by many authors, each from their own

perspectives, just as my analysis is influenced by my own subjectivities as experienced teacher.

The originality of the participants illustrates the need for qualitative studies to bring to bear both

data and analyses, so as to further explore philosophical proposals and observations.

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 Acknowledgements

My thanks to Dr. Yvonne Hébert, from whom I have taken heart and learned more than a

single degree can represent. In addition, I would like to thank the Administration and Staff of the

Graduate Division of Educational Research for their time and help in my education. The courses

that I took helped shape me and of course this thesis.

First and foremost thanks must go to the participants, without their dedication and time of

entire project would not have been possible. I must not forget that throughout my career I learned

as much from my students as they learned from me. The desire to help students led me to this

path and so I am thankful to the hundreds of students that I have had the pleasure of teaching.

My sister would understand the above best of all; she is still working as a resource

teacher in a Calgary school. Her encouragement and support enabled me to keep in touch with

life and it is thanks to her that I undertook the project that led to this thesis.

I have also depended upon many friends for help and morale: from visits to other

provinces to relax and discuss things, to those who lent me their computers when mine was

down, I thank them one and all. Included in this I would like to mention Frank Bolton, who has

been on staff with me and who remains one of my best friends.

Without Dr. Hébert as my supervisor I doubt that I would have come this far. From the

first year of the project when she hired me as research assistant, to the present day, she has

offered nothing but the best wishes and support that I feel I needed. The staff, in the Office of

Graduate Education do yeoman work and Dr. Hébert is a great exemplar to all.

Finally but not least, I wish to thank my family, who stood by me over the years and

encouraged me during this time. I had a lot to overcome; together we did it.

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 Table of Contents

Approval Page.................................................................................................................................ii

Abstract..........................................................................................................................................iii

Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................iv

List of Tables and Figures............................................................................................................viii

List of Photos and Documents......................................................................................................viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................9

2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................9
2.2 Finding the Way Home: Critical Ethnographies of Youth Identity, Race and Place.............9
2.3 Metaphors of Postmodern Identity......................................................................................10
2.4 Space and Place...................................................................................................................18
2.5 Changing Conceptions of Childhood...................................................................................21
2.5.1 Child as Worker............................................................................................................23
2.5.2 Child as Angel/ Devil....................................................................................................25
2.5.3 Child as Commodity.....................................................................................................25
2.5.4 Child as Citizen.............................................................................................................26
2.6 Summary..............................................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................27

3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................27
3.2 Justification for Adopting the Qualitative Paradigm and the Case Study...........................27
3.3 Ethical Considerations.........................................................................................................30
3.4 Recruitment of Participants.................................................................................................31
3.5 Development of Research Instruments................................................................................32
3.5.2 Focus Groups................................................................................................................35
3.5.3 Semi-Structured Interviews..........................................................................................36
3.5.4 Urban Mapping.............................................................................................................36
3.5.5 Photoscapes...................................................................................................................37
3.6 Methodological Rigour........................................................................................................39

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 3.7 Participants Profiles.............................................................................................................40
3.8 Procedures for Analysis.......................................................................................................41
3.9 Summary..............................................................................................................................42
CHAPTER 4: Qualitative Youth Portraits.....................................................................................43

4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................43
4.2 Findings...............................................................................................................................45
4.2.1 Pilgrim..........................................................................................................................47
4.2.2 Tourist...........................................................................................................................57
4.2.3 Player – Le Sportif........................................................................................................64
4.2.4 Le Flâneur/Shopper......................................................................................................68
4.2.5 Vagabond......................................................................................................................76
4.2.6 Alternative or Extended Metaphors..............................................................................81
4.2.6.1 Fashionista.................................................................................................................81
4.2.6.2 Citizen........................................................................................................................84
4.3 Summary..............................................................................................................................87
CHAPTER 5: INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION...........................................................88

5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................88
5.2 Spatial Ordering and Identity Formulation..........................................................................88
5.3 Metaphors of Identity as Ways of Viewing the World.........................................................90
5.3.1 The Pilgrim – Gonzo.....................................................................................................90
5.3.2 Tourist – Nameless........................................................................................................92
5.3.3 Player and Sportif– Queen............................................................................................93
5.3.4 Flâneur – White Ninja...................................................................................................95
5.3.5 Vagabond – Crazy Lady................................................................................................95
5.3.6 Fashionista – Good Girl................................................................................................96
5.3.7 Citizen – Captain Crack................................................................................................98
5.4 Summary..............................................................................................................................98
5.5 Thesis Conclusion..............................................................................................................102
Appendix A: Permission to Use the Data for my Master’s Thesis..............................................106

Appendix B: Ethical Approval.....................................................................................................107

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Appendix C: Consent Form.........................................................................................................108

Appendix D: Socio Demographic Form......................................................................................111

Appendix E: Photoscape Planning Booklet.................................................................................113

Appendix F: Photoscape Reporting Booklet................................................................................117

Appendix G: Protocol for Urban Mapping..................................................................................120

References....................................................................................................................................161

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 List of Tables
Table 1.1 List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………….….xi

Table 1.2 List of Definitions………………………………………………………………….….xii

Table 3.1 Participant Table ………………………………………………………………………41

Table 4.0 Work and Leisure ……………………………………………………………………43

Table 4.1 Table of Indicators for each Metaphor of Identity ……………………………………45

Table 4.2 Career Aspirations ……………………………………………………………………48

Table 4.3 Mother’s Information…….……………………………….………………………...…48

Table 4.4 Father’s Information…………………………………………………………………...49

List of Figures
Figure 3.1 Reflexivity of the Investigation………………………………………………………42

Figure 4.1 Photoscape Booklet of Nameless ……………………………………………………65

List of Photos
Photo 4.1 Gonzo’s Photos - The Pilgrim…………………...……………………………………50

Photo 4.1.2 The art room ……………………………………………………………51

Photo 4.1.3 Blockbuster ……………………………………………………………51

Photo 4.1.4 Smitty’s ……………………………………………………………51

Photo 4.1.5 School ……………………………………………………………………51

Photo 4.1.6 Band room ……………………………………………………………52

Photo 4.1.7 Ben’s house ……………………………………………………………53

Photo 4.1.8 Alyssa K’s house ……………………………………………………53

Photo 4.1.8 Luke’s house ……………………………………………………………53

Photo 4.1.8 Hot Wax ……………………………………………………………53

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Photo 4.2 Nameless’ Photos - The Tourist ……………………………………………59

Photo 4.2.2 Skateboard ……………………………………………………………59

Photo 4.2.3 Flopsy the rabbit ……………………………………………………………59

Photo 4.2.4 The park ……………………………………………………………………60

Photo 4.2.5 The basement ……………………………………………………………60

Photo 4.2.6 Subway ……………………………………………………………………60

Photo 4.2.7 Petland ……………………………………………………………………61

Photo 4.2.8 View of Trans-Canada Highway ……………………………………………61

Photo 4.3 The Player – Queen ……………………………………………………………66

Photo 4.3.2 Shaw Millenium Park ……………………………………………………66

Photo 4.3.3 MacHall ……………………………………………………………………66

Photo 4.3.4 Kensington……..……………………………………………………………66

Photo 4.3.5 Skaters ……………………………………………………………………66

Photo 4.3.6 Chikko ……………………………………………………………………67

Photo 4.4 The Flâneur – White Ninja ……………………………………………………………70

Photo 4.4.2 My house ……………………………………………………………………70

Photo 4.4.3 My car….……………………………………………………………………71

Photo 4.4.4 My school…...………………………………………………………………71

Photo 4.4.5 Cafeteria ……………………………………………………………………72

Photo 4.4.6 Hallway ……………………………………………………………………72

Photo 4.4.7 Gym…………………………………………………………………………72

Photo 4.4.8 Stephen Avenue ……………………………………………………………73

Photo 4.4.9 17th Avenue ……………………………………………………………73

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 Photo 4.4.10 HotWax ……………………………………………………………………74

Photo 4.4.11 Charisma ……………………………………………………………74

Photo 4.4.12 Fabutan ……………………………………………………………………74

Photo 4.4.13 Chicken on the Way ……………………………………………………75

Photo 4.4.14 Mountain View Bowlerama ……………………………………………75

Photo 4.4.15 Domino’s ……………………………………………………………75

Photo 4.4.16 Recordland ……………………………………………………………76

Photo 4.4.17 Earl’s ……………………………………………………………………76

Photo 4.5 Vagabond – Crazy Lady ……………………………………………………………78

Photo 4.5.2 My bed ……………………………………………………………………78

Photo 4.5.3 Drug deals ……………………………………………………………80

Photo 4.5.4 Guns ……………………………………………………………………81

Photo 4.6 Fashionista – Good Girl ……………………………………………………………83

Photo 4.6.2 Mom’s car ……………………………………………………………84

Photo 4.6.3 Downtown ……………………………………………………………85

Photo 4.6.4 My computer ……………………………………………………………86

Photo 4.6.5 Magazines ……………………………………………………………86

Photo 4.6.6 Basketball court ……………………………………………………………86

Photo 4.7 Citizen – Captain Crack ……………………………………………………………86

Photo 4.7.2 School doorway ……………………………………………………………86

Photo 4.7.3 School relaxation space outside ……………………………………………87

Photo 4.7.4 School ……………………………………………………………………87

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 Table 1.1: List of Abbreviations

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)…………………………………….2

Organization for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD)…………………………………6

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 Table 1.2: List of Definitions

Epistemology: the study or theory of the nature of knowledge and knowing.

Heterotopia: developed by Michel Foucault; a concept of the existence of space and place that
is physical, mental, temporal and spiritual, and the significance of these places
and spaces to individuals and cultures.

Heuristics: experience-based technique to learning.

Identity (modernist): sameness, what makes a person recognizable?

Identity (post-modern): multiple actions and reactions stimulated by time, space and others.

La Perruque: (a) wig; (b) work done by a worker, technician, during working hours, for
personal use or gain, with materials and tools of the workplace, often disguised as
work for an employer.

Ontology: theory about the nature of being and existence

Panopticon: metaphor for the disciplinary measures and strictures that are internalized by
society to normalize or control their behaviour.

Postmodern: philosophical movement the questions the existence of a single, permanent truth
or reality. Rather it is the belief that reality and truth change or are dependent
upon the nature of the individual or group, such as culture, race, gender, etc.

Post-structuralism: the concept that human culture is understood through its language; similar to
postmodernism

Semiotics: theory that signs and symbols exist and provide meaning within cultures and
social groups.

Symbolic interactionism: how people act according to the meaning(s) placed on places, people,
and things.

Tabula rasa: concept of the young mind as a ‘blank slate’ that is ‘written on’ by individuals and
society to shape and even control an individual.

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Contemporary social, economic, and political debates about youth are inscribed in a

discourse of panic in which youth are personified negatively, be it the youth riots in the UK in

2011, those in France in 2007, and elsewhere (Cohen, 2002; Lucas, 1998; Schissel, 1997; Watt &

Stenson, 1998). Of considerable depth and importance over the years, these debates are

characteristic of a profound struggle for the symbols of a national identity linked to the nation-

state. In this context, the metaphors, processes, and spaces of youth identity formation are highly

significant as they underlie profound issues of belonging and adaptation, crisis and violence,

security and economic development, social transformations, diversity, and multicultural policy.

By virtue of its reproductive and transformational roles, schooling is at the very core of cultural

differences and democratic dimensions of young people’s multiple identifications.

The focus of this Masters of Arts thesis is on the intersection of urban youth’s identity

formation process and their socio-cultural differences and practices in Calgary. In Canada, youth

develop their identity projects in peer groups of many cultural backgrounds in which they

mediate their intercultural and participatory positions. Within such diversified contexts that

presuppose complex forms of identity formation, it becomes crucial to find out whether the

discourse and praxis of equalities/inequalities experienced by young people support multiple

forms of cultural and civic identity formation among Canadian youth and how this translates into

the development of socio-cultural-civic-national identifications. Of particular interest to this

thesis are images and metaphors produced by participating youth themselves, as these provide a

looking-glass through which, as a member of a larger research team, I observed in order to better

1
understand the processes and discourses, positionings and negotiations, of participating youth in

Calgary.

The purpose of this thesis research, then, is to understand the processes of negotiating

cultural differences and postmodern identity formation among urban youth in Calgary. Three

research questions orient the thesis: a first question stemming from the overall project and two

specific questions germane to this thesis:

GENERAL RESEARCH QUESTION:

 How do processes of inclusion and exclusion experienced by youth in a Western

Canadian city contribute to the development of differentiated identities located in civil

society?

SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

 How applicable, permeable, and generative, are metaphors of identity, as developed by

Baumann, to youth in a Western Canadian city, i.e., Calgary, in contemporary times?

 How does space itself serve as a metaphor for ways of being and of relating to the world

in both its abstractions and its concrete realities?

PROJECT BACKGROUND

This Masters of Arts thesis research project is inscribed within a larger tri-city research project,

Negotiating Difference and Democracy: Identity Formation as Social Capital among Canadian

Youth, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC, 2003-2008),

with Dr. Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary) as principal investigator and Drs. Lori A.

Wilkinson (University of Manitoba) and Mehrunissa Ali (Ryerson University) as co-researchers

in Winnipeg and Toronto respectively. The data included in this thesis are used with permission

of the Principal Investigator (Appendix A) and are situated within all ethical permissions granted

2
by the three universities, participating schools districts, participants, and their parents, and

particularly those in Calgary (Appendix B). My role as research assistant within Year One of this

research project is explicated in Chapter Three on methodological matters.

Having briefly presented the research project and guiding questions as relevant to this

Masters of Arts thesis project, the remainder of this chapter discusses the relevance of this study

to my experiences as an educator and in life; and the organization of the thesis itself.

RELEVANT BACKGROUND EXPERIENCES

Moving from place to place across Saskatchewan as the son of a schoolteacher gave me

insight into rural and Aboriginal life while also nurturing my interests in both Contact

Archaeology and Education. After obtaining a Bachelor’s (BA) degree in Archaeology at the

University of Calgary in 1975, I initially went from job-to-job during the boom years (1975-

1982) of Alberta, then settled down to become a schoolteacher thus following in my father’s

professional footsteps.

The most influential people in my early adventures were my parents for they laid the

foundation for my interests in intercultural relations, my service as an educator, and my political

activism. My father told stories about World War II, referred to simply as ‘the war’. His valuable

typing skills made him a man of action (without a gun) at the front lines as he searched for

missing soldiers. When he returned from the War, he served as a schoolteacher on the Red

Pheasant Indian Reserve in Saskatchewan. There, the Indian agent didn’t want any teaching of

the ‘3 R’s’ but instead ordered the children to be trained in manual labour. My father’s idealism

did not permit this and his refusal to stop teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic soon got him

fired. The Indians exacted retribution for this on their agent, ensuring that the agent was fired as

well. The reasons were clear enough: they liked my dad and they wanted a quality education for

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their children. My mother was born in a contested area; Tarnopol, which was part of Russia prior

to World War I, then part of Poland at the time of her birth, and then part of the Ukraine after

World War II. Her father served in both the Austrian and Polish armies at the time of World War

I. Consequently, I heard stories about inter-ethnic conflict and cleansing from my earliest years,

as well as reflections on Canada as a great and welcoming country. My mother quietly served in

her role, keeping the family well organized and yet delighting in my discoveries and encouraging

my passions and those of my sister, including our quests to better understand the world and its

complex interactions. Both extended families lived many cultural traditions, adding to the

intercultural contacts and awareness of my early formative years. For me, these experiences and

many others form the basis of my passion for education, my idealism in my occupation, and my

interests in the topic of my Masters of Arts in Educational Contexts.

My early life consisted of long prairie afternoons at school and summer holidays

wandering the hills around Irvine, Alberta. Rock collecting became a passion, and as with many

small boys, dinosaurs were fascinating. Fossils readily available in the hills were a great part of

my collecting experience. I understand now that my choice of specialization in Archaeology at

Medicine Hat College served a twofold purpose: studying the ancient records of man and

learning more about mankind. Furthering my studies in Archaeology at the University of

Calgary, I realized that the study of interactions between cultures was of greatest interest to me.

Upon graduation, I further realized that I was also interested in politics, engaging in political

activity after-hours. Eventually, I returned to university to become a teacher, which to my

delight, was most engaging given the rich human contact with students and colleagues on a daily

basis.

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 Becoming a teacher was a fortunate choice. Social Studies became my specialization with

Science a close second. With 30 or more students in my Science classes and limited time for

preparation, organization, and delivery, I found teaching very stressful and realized that I needed

more teaching techniques that engaged the students to make them more responsible for the class.

Thanks to colleagues at the Calgary Youth Science Fair on starting up ‘clubs’, student

participation increased dramatically as did their sense of responsibility for the classroom, the

science lab, and learning activities. This then led to developing dependable peer leadership and I

was soon running a school-wide leadership program for projects that included Science, Physical

Education and even making movies. About this time, various classroom strategies were initiated

in order to recognize the work done by the students, providing immediate rewards and further

developing their sense of responsibility and classroom management, leading to authentic

learning. Mementoes of these engagements are still special to me, as much as the rocks and

artefacts of my childhood years.

Eventually, my colleagues and I realized that not all teachers engaged students in these

ways and that our students were not similarly served in the higher grades. My colleagues and I

realized that when students are treated as young adults, they are more motivated to learn and

more respectful of their learning environment. What could be done? My dilemma brought me to

take up graduate work in Education. Although I first intended to specialize in Educational

Administration, thinking this would ‘fix’ the school situation, the courses I took initially

emphasized spirituality, social justice, and semiotics, which led me to wonder how this could be

implemented in the school. In Spring 2004, a casual, amusing incident in the cafeteria led to an

invitation to a class on culture, identity and schooling. At last, I was at home, bringing

intercultural contacts into education for the benefit of the students. Eventually this led to a role as

5
research assistant in Dr. Yvonne Hébert’s research projects and to undertaking the thesis itself

with her as my advisor.

I served as research assistant for two projects. The main project focussed on the identity

formation of adolescents in three cities: Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto, with Dr. Hébert as

principal researcher and Drs. Lori Wilkinson and Mehrunissa Ali as co-researchers in each of the

other two cities. The second project, also led by Dr. Hébert, examined the emergence of

conceptions of the child as learner, citizen, worker, and other social roles within the history of

childhood in Canada. The first project was funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research

Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the second one by the Organization for Economic and Cultural

Development (OECD).

Both projects had an enormous impact on my studies and my own development as an

enquirer and educator. For the first project I was involved in the initial stages of implementation

of year one of a three-year project and more specifically the development of the research

instruments, as explicated in Chapter Three which focuses on research methodology. Of

particular interest to me, however, were and still are the photoscapes, with youthful participants

taking photos of places which they deemed to be ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ and where they feel ‘included’

or ‘excluded’. These photos were then turned into annotated scrapbooks, followed by an urban

mapping exercise in which participants indicated their preferred places in each quadrant of the

city and beyond.

My involvement as Research Assistant in Calgary in the project’s first formative year was

very exciting and enriching for me. The subject of this research examined how identities are

created and maintained through the space young people inhabit by uncovering discernible

attachments, so as to explain how these are mediated through urban spaces frequented by young

6
people. From an educational perspective, the identifications that young people assume reveal

much about their relationships with the outer world and their sense of self-worth. From the

perspective of educators, these conceptions provide insight into understanding the best ways to

approach children and youth in order to enable them to realize their full potential. Within the

increasingly diverse, fragmented, and postmodern society that Canada is, the external structures

that young people were perceived and constructed throughout the 20th Century, by means of

standardized grades and conformism to adult social mores, are changing and are no longer seen

to be particularly relevant. The solution for educators is to seek more innovative ways to engage

with young people, both as individuals and in groups, in order to deliver learning experiences

that are both more inclusive and more specific. My research experiences have brought me hope

and understanding that such approaches would be of enormous benefit to students and teachers

alike.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The remainder of this thesis is organized as follows. Chapter Two consists of a literature

review that focuses on four strands to provide the necessary theoretical tools for the challenges

ahead: (a) a complex critical cultural studies research project seeking to question and challenge

prevailing negative conceptions of youth in disadvantaged areas of London, England, undertaken

by Les Back, Phil Cohen, and Michael Keith (1999-2008), to produce critical ethnographies of

identity, race, and place to better inform innovative community initiatives; (b) Baumann’s (1996)

five metaphors of identity; (c) Foucault’s (1997b) notion of space as a series of heterotopias that

carry significance in existence and in usage; and (d) changing conceptions of childhood over

time. The four theoretical approaches broaden the scope of study of adolescents and are of

special relevance to Canadian culture.

7
 Chapter three focuses on research methodology and explains the ontological and

epistemological construction of the research as situated within the interpretive/constructivism

paradigm. The chapter also describes the research instruments that served to engage young

people as participants, to elicit hereto hidden perceptions, and to permit the triangulation of

complex data for the production of nuanced analysis. The findings propose that there are two

more metaphors of identity among youth in Calgary are presented in Chapter four, followed with

interpretations and conclusions in Chapter Five.

8
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
In order to create and present the theoretical framework of this thesis, chapter two is

divided into four sections. Youth bear similarities throughout the world, notably negative public

press, the first section specifically examines the articulation, implementation, and findings of an

innovative critical studies project undertaken by Back, Cohen, and Keith (2003-2008) in London

in order to challenge negative public perceptions and to better inform community initiative. The

second section examines the interrelated themes as proposed by Zygmunt Baumann (1986)

through a model of five postmodern metaphors of identity and the significance of self-

constructed or self-imposed identities upon self-image and life careers. A third section takes up

the theorization of relevant notions of space and place as these locate and relate metaphoric

identifications, such as Foucault’s construction of heterotopias (1967) and their meanings within

spatial reality as place. The final section details changing conceptions of childhood in Canada

and their mediation within youth’s perceived worlds as identity, race, and ethnocultural

experiences. Intended to create a theoretical framework for the data analysis, each of the four

thematic strands is presented in turn.

2.2 Finding the Way Home: Critical Ethnographies of Youth Identity, Race and Place
Situated within critical cultural studies perspectives, the innovative work of Les Back,

Phil Cohen, and Michael Keith at the Centre for New Ethnicities Research at the University of

East London, nearly a decade (1999-2008), informed the conceptualisation and implementation

of the larger project as well as my thesis work. Given the considerable public concern with issues

of public safety in a multiracial city such as London, the portrayal of youth by mass media is

9
sensationalized with stories about street violence in which young people are either victims or

perpetrators of racial violence. Policies of ‘youth curfews’ and zero tolerance policing become

governmental responses to these problems yet, in the midst of all this turmoil the voices of young

people telling their own stories are rarely heard or even sought out. Their stories, however, are

quite revealing of how different groups make sense of growing up on the front lines of racial

confrontation and of how particular interventions designed to improve community relations

impact on their daily lives. In their research project, Finding the Way Home (Back, et al,.1999),

the London team of scholars sought to question and challenge the negative representations of

youth and aimed to provide a more informed basis for community initiatives that could be

developed with a more dialogic approach to eliciting young people’s views on identifications,

ethnic and intergroup relations Working with 13 and 14 year-olds in two areas of the Docklands

in London, England, the team used innovative research techniques such as photographic projects,

creative writing, video walkabouts, audio diaries, and interviews, to explore their real and

imagined landscapes of safety and danger, in critical ethnographies of race, place, and identity

(Back, Cohen & Keith, 2008).

The London research is important for Canadian educators and students; it has the

potential to add to the understanding of how racialized experiences intermingled with ethnic

relations, as well as intercultural and national culture contribute to the construction of youth

identities. More specifically, individual identity may be (re-)negotiated in relation to markers of

national heritage, resulting in specifically Canadian legacies of experiences of childhood and

adolescence.

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2.3 Metaphors of Identity
The concept of the metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle; it is the application of one

characteristic of an entity to another entity in such a way that our insight into the first entity is

enhanced (Aristotle, trans. 1996). Baumann (1996) uses metaphors of identity to describe a range

of subject positions that make sense of the ways that people relate to and interact within the

world. Metaphors of identity can continue throughout the life cycle or can be limited to a given

life stage as determined by personality, life experiences, and circumstances. A person can assume

or play several metaphoric personas simultaneously, subconsciously selecting the one that is

most appropriate or comfortable in a given situation, and given communicative intent. The

metaphors themselves can lead to the creation of new metaphors with respect to differing

groupings of signifiers.

Youth are developing metaphors of identity, selecting from a range of metaphors as

projections to act out. According to Jaffe (1998), this leads to a final one or final set of metaphors

in adulthood, although this may be debatable. Personas are usually subject to ongoing

negotiation within the world through significant others and peer groups. As such, personas are

not necessarily fully formed metaphors of identity as described by Baumann’s (1996); rather,

metaphors are ways of interacting that have their own internal coherence that can be identified

and categorized. Much as speakers vary their discourse according to interlocutor, topic, situation,

and intention, a person may shift between selected metaphors of identity over time according to

purpose and to other persons such as parents, peers, and teachers. The young person’s

internalized and projected styles are developed through given metaphoric identity combinations.

Baumann’s work on metaphors of identity was influenced by his scepticism of Marxism

and drew on the work of Georg Simmel (1858-1918), an early German sociologist and founder

of the Frankfurt School of sociology, as well as on the philosophy of Jacques Derrida (1930-

11
2004). Simmel carried out early work on symbolic interactionism, developing what would

become a key model of sociological analysis. Inspired by the field of semiotics, Simmel

borrowed the signifying code for society and signals how social groups are constructed,

categorized, enacted, and subordinated within society. Semiotics is the study of signs and signals,

including indications of relationships between social groups and society. Semiotics is concerned

with both direct and obvious signing and is alluded to obliquely as metaphors of identity.

Simmel’s work examines the relationship of culture and identity, especially how group identities

within a culture are externally imposed rather than internally generated (Simmel, 1950 p292).

Baumann’s work parallels Simmel’s with respect to the construction of certain social

groups as out-groups, the perpetuation and reinforcement of these constructions, and the

reinforcement of the exclusion criteria. The Final Solution and the Holocaust (Bauman, 1996) are

examples of the outcome of constructions that generate the concept of the Stranger; perceived

within the metaphoric identity perspective as the Vagabond, who must be controlled by the

dominant forces in the society. Baumann (1991) argues that the developmental stage of

modernity where people trade off security for freedom has given way to postmodernism where

multiple perspectives challenge that same security and freedom. Baumann prefers the term liquid

modernity to postmodernism, with an emphasis on personal choice and freedom that is

exemplified by consumerism (Baumann, 2011; Lee, 2005).

The French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, influenced Baumann through his thinking on

deconstruction and post-structuralism, and its relevance to the enquiry of how outsiders as

strangers, or as the excluded, are identified and categorized (Derrida, 2008 p381). He examines

how the treatment of the Other intrudes upon the body politic and the implications of this process

12
upon society. Jacques Derrida also inspired Foucault, whose theories of space and place are

discussed in section 2.4.

Baumann’s (1996, p.24) metaphors of identity respond to the existential need for meaning

in the internal life and interaction with others. The search for meaning is central to personal life

and the search becomes contingent upon others who join in this search; for example, religious

movements and political ideologies. Baumann indicates that the sense of meaning may be a false

consciousness created by religion or marketers of consumable goods (I have, therefore I am),

subverted and given a positive gloss (aspiration), or a negative one (avoidance). Meaning may be

imposed upon the individual or group through the ascription of others and be internalized or

rejected. Nevertheless, the concept of identity remains as the primary and universal existential

human drive in the search for meaning (Baumann, 1996).

Baumann (1996, p.26) defines five discrete metaphors of identity and suggests that they

continue over time and contain within them the search for meaning, either overtly, as exemplified

in the Pilgrim, or more subtly, with the Flâneur. Each of the five identities: Pilgrim, Flâneur (or

Stroller), Vagabond, Tourist, and Player, play a significant role in ascribing identity to the

individual and those with whom the individual interacts. The identities have a semiotic value,

(they can be symbolically recognized (if not labelled) by others with similar or dissimilar

characteristics and who choose to join in or to be in opposition with them (Barthes, 1967).

According to Barthes, the metaphors function across culture, gender, social systems, over time,

and can be recognized through historical texts and literature. Moreover, even without Baumann’s

typology, it is possible to argue, according to Sutherland (2007), that all literature is constructed

from characters exhibiting one or more of the five metaphors of identity.

13
 Baumann’s (1996) five metaphors are only broadly delineated because each one is

layered in increasing complexity. Each identity is engaged in a search for meaning with the

Pilgrim as the most obvious. The Pilgrim’s reference points go beyond the immediate and

temporal because these move spatially on physical/geographical planes or through time, seeking

their goal. While the search can involve physical relocation, a Pilgrim is involved in a spiritual

journey or pilgrimage. Engaging in a solitary monastic life in order to live in uninterrupted

meditation and prayer may involve movement to a desert-like place although a mental quest

could be experienced within the self.

The Middle Ages was a time of many pilgrimages; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

demonstrates the often diverse history of pilgrims and acknowledges that each one sought an

outcome from the journey. The desire to use the education system to attain academic grades,

enter higher education, and move away from the familial social setting can be seen as a

pilgrimage, a scholarly journey for independence, for adulthood. Just as questing for spiritual

enlightenment is grounded in space and moves from one state of being to another.

The primary trait of the Pilgrim, over and above the search for meaning and the

construction of identity, is the solitary nature of the quest. The Pilgrim is a loner in ways the

other metaphors of identity are not; meaning can only be found through introspection and

observation, involving limited participation that is essentially reflective and self-critical. The

Pilgrim demands time out, solitude is needed and even required in order to reflect upon, and to

work out, their own study of meanings. The Pilgrim is clearly an introvert.

The Flâneur (Stroller) is the opposite of the Pilgrim on many dimensions. The Flâneur is

an extrovert so the focus upon the search for meaning is through externalization. While the

Pilgrim traverses the internal world, the Flâneur is actively and obviously engaged in traversing

14
the external world through heterotopic behaviour. Foucault (1967) coined the term, ‘heterotopias’

as temporal and spiritual spaces with significance to individuals and cultures. The Flâneur’s

behaviour is manifested in multiple spatial contexts using clothes, fashion, sporting prowess, and

style as the mode of engagement with others. The Flâneur is not, however, innocently seeing and

being seen. As noted by Walter Benjamin (1929, 1939), the Flâneur, also termed the intelligentsia

in the marketplace, eventually engages in economic exchanges wherein his/her close

observations of the marketplace would provide him/her with significant advantages.

The Flâneur wishes to be seen, to be admired, to see, and to admire, but not to engage

with others. The Flâneur creates identity through display and adjusts that identity on the basis of

feedback from onlookers. The Flâneur walks through public spaces to show off their style to an

interested public. Just as the Pilgrim remains detached from the world by focusing upon the

internal world, the Flâneur maintains detachment through movement. The latter may inhabit

several heterotopias concurrently or sequentially without laying claim to any. Their air of

detachment and ephemeral engagement may appear attractive or threatening depending on the

personal constructs of the observer.

The Vagabond is denied the opportunity to engage with the physical world by others and

in opposition assumes a metaphor of identity that celebrates their difference and unwillingness to

be controlled. The Vagabond threatens in a way that the Pilgrim never can. As a term, it

originates in the numbers of dispossessed rootless migrants spawned by the appropriation of

agricultural land and the abolition of monastic institutions. In England the Poor Law of 1597

differentiated between the deserving poor and vagabonds, the latter were seen as lawless,

predatory, and anti-social; the primary interaction with government was with its agencies of

control (Slack, 1990).

15
 The metaphor of the Vagabond is of the outsider, the Stranger, alluding back to

Baumann’s (1991) earlier works, as less easily controlled by conventional social mores and for

this reason seen as threatening. In more recent history, the Vagabond is the masterless man, the

itinerant worker with only a tenuous connection with the space he inhabits because the search for

work engenders rootlessness and the concept of masterlessness denotes poverty, he has no master

as either employer or controller. Within pre-modernist and modernist society, the Vagabond

exists in opposition to the order of a structured society, with the non-threatening dimension of

this metaphor of identity expressed by such terms as “eccentric”, “free spirit”, or even “rebel” of

today. Within postmodernism, which Baumann considers to be liquid modernity, the Vagabond

has the potential to be the identity metaphor that results from an increasingly fragmented and

culturally diverse society (Lee, 2005). As both free spirit and masterless man, the Vagabond has

an obvious appeal to adolescents who strive to be unique and yet struggle with the need for

acceptance and belonging.

The remaining two metaphors of identity are Tourist and Player. The Tourist is passing

through, occupying space and place only marginally and briefly. While the Vagabond is

marginalized and excluded from society by that society, the Tourist only engages with society on

the Tourist’s terms and does not seek inclusion. There are similarities with the Flâneur who

occupies space for self-display, whereas the Tourist does so for the experience while gathering

mementoes of that experience. The Tourist is a consumer with the need to acquire mementos. To

define the self through ownership of items is a key definer of the Tourist metaphor among youth.

Tourists may consider themselves to be passing through, but from the capitalist perspective the

Tourist is central to the social order and is increasingly seen in mainstream because they are

economically viable and recycle this productivity as purchasing. By comparison, the Vagabond

16
exists on the margins and the Pilgrim is more concerned with the spiritual quest than with

commodities.

The Player demonstrates competence as a good team player. Generally, players can

decipher the rules or semiotics (Barthes, 1967) so they are able to play the game. Models such as

James Bond portray the “urbane hero” (Lofland & Lofland, 1995) who manages his appropriated

space with sophistication and enthusiasm. They present as well-informed and well-travelled in

geographical space through knowledge and experience as social travelling that can be real or

artificial. To be a successful Player in an urban setting, the following are necessary: space (as a

board), people (as game pieces), settings (as rules), and the ability to differentiate between

winners and losers. The mark of the Player to maintain himself or herself on the winning side is

whether the focus is on the athlete or the game.

Although Baumann did not discuss the ‘Citizen’, ‘Sportif’ or ‘Fashionista’, these may be

seen as extensions of other metaphors of identity, and to some extent metaphoric identifications

in their own right. Once the Pilgrim achieves his or her search for meaning, and even during that

search, the Pilgrim may emerge as a Citizen who seeks to make changes in, and engage with,

society. The Pilgrim distances himself from people, while the Citizen actively engages with

people and may even become an extension of the Flâneur (Stroller) in the acquisition of clothes

and other consumer goods and the hedonistic consumption in clubs that provide the heterotopia

of shared space and shared vision of identity (Foucault, 1967).

Drawing upon the Flâneur and the Player, the Sportif wishes to be seen as sporting

through ownership of high quality designer sportswear more than actual sport prowess. The

Sportif draws from the Shopper and/or from the Flâneur to link the capability to play the game

17
(Player) with the display of the Flâneur and the Shopper, thus melding consumerism with

gamesmanship.

Although the Fashionista appears to be a sub-metaphor of Flâneur and Shopper, the

Fashionista is differentiated from the Flâneur by being both consumer and creator of fashion

through the Internet and magazine participation. The establishment of good taste and fashion

through a shared vision of a heterotopia encompasses the immediate space and a potentially

universal in-crowd space (Foucault, 1967).

2.4 Space and Place

What constitutes space and its relationship to place is the subject of wide-ranging

philosophical debate (Lechner, 1991; Simmel, 1950). Space is a factor in industrialization and

the division of territories and changing ownership that accompany the meaning of place. Space

has been at a premium in Europe since the 18th Century as labour-intensive commerce and

industry requires a great deal of land. An almost wholly urban landscape has since developed that

differs significantly from the geographical space of the rural domains of Canada (Knowles,

2007).

The colonization of Canada created a sense of space that initially seemed to be natural

and only marginally controlled, providing a greater sense of democracy as a possibility than

within the cities of Europe and later the United States of America (USA). In comparison, Canada

became a confederation in 1867 and, according to Knowles (2007, p.24) remains a new nation

populated by settlers with long-term historical cultural dissonance between New France and the

British-founded territories. Canada’s political and economic relationship is now mostly

negotiated with the USA, while also renegotiating its cultural diversity stemming from

immigration originating from Europe, Africa, and increasingly Asia and Pacific Rim countries.

18
 The temporal and geographical interpretation of space and its ordering is an essentially

urban concept. Access to space and its usage is determined by access to political and economic

power; the rich live in large penthouses while the poor live in cramped slums (Smith, 1974). An

equitable division of space is often believed to be the route to social equality and justice (Knox,

1975). Furthermore, Lefebvre (1974, 1991) distinguishes three conceptions of space as “conçu”,

“perçu”, and “vécu”; that is, as conceptualized, perceived, and lived. Representational space is

then included; space in combination with semiotic indicators transforms space into a sense of

place with meaning for those who inhabit, visit, or know of it (Barthes 1967). Place is more than

the physical dimension; it also includes the social and relational dimensions of consciousness for

communities and individuals.

How adolescent males and females use space, the gender differences of such usage

(White and Wyn, 2006 p232) and perceptions of the other are key to demonstrating how

Baumann’s (1996) metaphors of identity connects with Lefebvre’s (1974 p.35) concept of

representational space. Essentially, it is the process of creating new spaces that exist within the

group or individual consciousness, the process of creating meaning attached to them, their

significance, and ascribed meanings. Lefebvre’s (1974) theories are grounded within a Marxist

analysis of modern capitalism and space as a site of production, rendering auxiliary space as

living space contingent upon levels of production, and thus informing most urban development

theory (Brenner, 2000). If space is socially reconstructed as an ideal even by those who do not

use it, as Lefevbre (1974) contends, then it is contended space. According to Foucault (1997b),

the process of exerting power over space must involve a superior force; to exclude the powerless

clearly encompasses adolescents whose efforts to colonize space are often seen as unallowable

attempts to wrest space from the powerful adult world.

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 It is within this context that space is ‘changed’. A group of youth walking down a street

can manifest a space within their group. This space has boundaries, others will not willingly walk

among or between them, then social mores take hold. Within a few minutes, a bus stop can be

transformed into a space of energetic and talkative people, then revert to a bus stop once they get

on the bus. In the same way, malls have areas in which space can be subverted to the intent of the

youth involved until a security guard walks past or otherwise hints that they move on. Combined

with heterotopias, the inclusion and exclusion of social groups within space can be more fully

defined.

The concept of heterotopias has been adopted by scholars working within numerous

disciplinary perspectives. Foucault (1867, 1986) places heterotopia in opposition to a desired, but

essentially unattainable, utopia (as coined in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516) and as such

constitutes a counter-site:

...a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites are simultaneously

represented, contested and inverted …a sort of mythic and real contestation of the

space in which we live (Foucault 1986, p.22).

Among the most famous of Foucault’s representations of a heterotopia is a ship: when at sea it

has no fixed location but it is nevertheless a place that has boundaries and where human activity

occurs, enabling the ship to enter into the discourse of metaphor, such as “ship of dreams” and

“ship of fools”. Continuing Foucault’s argument, de Certeau (1988, p.17) claims that place and

space are different concepts. A place, however defined, exhibits a form of permanency and has

personal significance that isn’t necessarily held in common for either its significance or its

nomenclature; however, space and place do exist as temporal entities. Space is unstable as it is

20
not part of the order of things; however, it is what individuals and groups carve out of the

temporal dimensions of time, space, and zones of freedom (de Certeau, 1988).

In ‘making do’, de Certeau (1988, pp.30-31) lays out the behaviour of the worker/consumer in

terms of how that person subverts the intent of both business and leisure in order to create things

of interest to the self. From the use of time for personal matters, while on company time, to the

changing of place and space, this ‘science of singularity’ (de Certeau, ix.) relates to the

metaphors of identity and my investigation in general. Such relationships of intentional

subverting the use of space for a different purpose can be viewed from the inward seeking of the

pilgrim to the outward seeking of tourist or flâneur. Indeed the ‘tourist industry’ can be said to be

a reaction of consumerism to the changing tastes of immigrants and visitors toward the shopping

mall, department store and other innovations of modernity.

Space only comes into existence when it is, “activated by the ensemble of movements

deployed within it” (de Certeau, 1988, p.42). By contending with other users of space for

familial obligations, for assumed infringements that limit and encroach upon this space-time, or

by spending less time on other activities and making space in our lives by reconfiguring the

space that already exists, it is possible to ‘make’ space and to ‘make’ time. For children and

adolescents whose time and space are highly circumscribed and controlled by adults (James et al,

1998) the process of making space can be seen as a process of self-liberation, where leisure time

and activities are simultaneously concerned with freedom and control: freedom to do, but within

boundaries set by the internalized (Rojek, 1985). Foucault’s panopticon can be translated as

conscience or as the internalization of external and largely adult-issued strictures that bind

actions.

21
 The above authors deal with space and place rather than networks and conceptualizations

of relationships, making their work the most germane to this thesis. This study is focused

primarily on participants who have learned and interacted for a number of years in their

environments, adapting the space and themselves as needed. For youth navigating through

adolescence towards adulthood, the capability and the freedom to appropriate space and to find

significance and ownership in place are both at once, a significant developmental goal and a

basic human need. In this light, a study of place and space with participants may serve to

illustrate some of the philosophical concepts above.

2.5 Changing Conceptions of Childhood

The evolving concept of childhood as a stage of the lifecycle defining specific

relationships to others and to space can only be studied in part through histories found in such

sources as written documents, artwork, and artefacts. Moreover, Aries and de Mause’s

constructions of childhood are contested as is Piaget (1957). For Aries (1962, p.33), childhood is

a new concept dating from the 19th and 20th Centuries, when surplus capital enabled children and

adolescents in certain classes of society to be separated from the economic process. The

marginality of de Mause’s 1988 thesis results in its validity being questioned by those working

within the mainstream. De Mause (1976) is famously credited in opening his “Introduction” to a

series of his compiled essays, with this comment that:

The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun

to awaken….The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of child care

and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized and

sexually abused (de Mause, 1976:1).

22
More recently, Lawrence Stone (1990, p.17) envisions children living within families and subject

to the evolution of the family from linear to domesticated and nuclear, with increasing levels of

successful individualization provided as parents became aware that children were more than

mini-adults and possess distinctively different needs. Pollock (1983) also argues that

childrearing, and therefore, the parental conception of the child has been essentially evolutionary

and continuous. Moreover, changes in childrearing indicate a greater regard for the child as an

object of affection (Stone, 1990). Difficulties lie in making sense of what limited evidence exists

and interpreting it in ways that do not place a present-day bias on historical actions and

behaviours (Cunningham, 1995).

Conceptions of childhood must be inferred and are often only vaguely supported by the

evidence. In antiquity and through the Industrial Revolution of the 18 th-19th Century in England,

Europe, and North America children moved from a state of dependency to the social role of

proto-adulthood at the age of responsibility, around seven. The transition was endorsed by

Church teachings that claimed by age seven the child knew right from wrong and was therefore

capable of sin and thus, eligible to receive the sacraments of Contrition and Communion, as

indicators of forgiveness for this proto-adulthood. Moreover, in agrarian societies, work was

integrated into other facets of life and by the age of seven the child of workers could engage in

some activity that had economic value in sustaining the household. At the other end of the social

spectrum, young scholars in the universities were educated alongside older peers where the

criterion of differentiation was based on intellect not years. It can therefore be argued that age-

related differentiation reinforced social differentiation on an economic basis, just as mass

schooling can be interpreted as an exercise in control rather than of enlightenment (Cunningham,

23
1995). In other words, the children of the upper classes, of the rich, were not involved in paid

labour as were the children of the lower classes (Moogk, 2003).

Childhood is a socially mediated construct and the Western European/North American

model is not a universal one, nor is it necessarily shared by other cultures or immigrant families

(Ross & Ross, 1990). Histories of childhood contain within them inferences about changing

concepts of childhood; they are not definitive and are mediated by the prevailing religious,

political, and social ideologies as well as the economic positioning of parents and families.

Arguments that existing literary descriptions signify growing affection for children by parents is

shown to be mitigated by levels of literacy and evolving modes of address (Cunningham, 1995).

Changing representations of children in art might be ascribed to artistic development rather than

attitudes towards the subject (Plumb, 1975).

It is possible to identify significant trends of how children and adolescents were defined

over time and in relation to broader social movements. Once children were ascribed to a category

separate from adults, and not merely as a proto-adult wearing the same clothes and engaging in

the same pastimes, their separateness led to the conceptions that evolved from this division

(Aries, 1962). Pollock (1983), however, argues that the new division is only representational;

parents were well aware of the child/adult separateness and their children’s needs. Changes in

European society from the 17th Century onwards coincided with the post-Reformation and post-

Renaissance periods as a time of rapid social and political change when printed books were

available and access to knowledge began to be more age-related than before (Postman, 1982).

Adults were possessors of knowledge and children were excluded, thus reifying their

separateness.

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2.5.1 Child as Worker
Industrialization reinforced separateness by demanding children be conceptualized as

formal workers creating the child as worker conception. In agrarian settings, children contributed

in a more informal way with closer familial interaction. While, in past centuries, children might

be apprenticed at an early age or farmed out to work and learn in other households, this was not a

universal practice. The process to remove the child from the workplace by philanthropic

legislation that was opposed to the child as worker concept and through formal schooling to

socialize children into appropriate adult workers and to contain and control them was achieved at

differential rates depending upon the demand for child labour, trade union strength, and social

concerns (Hébert & Hartley, 2006).

It is instructive to discuss a series of events that began as mutually beneficial regarding

the use of child labour and ended as problematic, specifically, the work of boys in coal mines

(McIntosh, 2003, p.79). Underage workers were paid lower wages and were perceived as being

less of a threat to professional miners, thus creating strong economic advantages for the company

to persist in this practice. The boys’ small size made them ideal, their families often needed the

additional income, and the boys were often from mining families.

Mining techniques required cheap labour for tedious jobs. The boys would be started on

opening 'traps', doors between sections of the mine, when coal was moved through. Boys had

replaced women to guide carts, pull sledges, control horse drawn loads, etc. Mine work was

viewed as an apprenticeship and the boys moved up the ladder of tedious jobs as they became

more experienced. Eventually, boys could hope to become professional miners themselves.

Beginning in 1887 strikes caused, or led, by colliery boys occurred. Tensions developed

between adults and boys and increased because of dangerous jobs and union problems. In other

words, the youth were not as disempowered as the adults needed them to be! At about the same

25
time, compulsory education was imposed to mitigate against the exploitation of children as

workers and low levels of educational achievement. Eventually, the problems at the mines and

the work of reformers brought about legislation in 1923 prohibiting any child under 16 from

mine work (Mcintosh 2003). Thus, once the children became a threat to older workers and

company owners they were packed off to school.

2.5.2 Child as Angel/ Devil

The perceptions of the child as worker overlapped with two opposing conceptions, the

“child as angel” and the “child as devil” (Rooke & Schnell, p.91). Representations of children

as passive innocent beings reached their apogee in the Victorian Era in Europe and North

America, and were given literary form by authors such as Charles Dickens. Innocence and purity

were the domain of the child whereas the inversion of this was the feral child whose innocence

could be destroyed. The concept of the masterless child, as Baumann’s (1986) Vagabond, can be

found in 19th Century tracts and in 20th Century responses to youth movements (Cohen, 1980),

and as Schissel (1997) found, the development of the category of youth confirm this concept of

masterless child. Even today, the folk expressions of the child as a little angel and as a devil are

still in common parlance.

2.5.3 Child as Commodity

Educationalists, such as Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), proposed that the moral fragility

of children was a double-edged sword that paralleled the social status of the mother. Jean-

Jacques Rousseau’s (1712-1778) concept of the child as a natural force and a tabula rasa that the

educator or parent could project their own constructs onto prefigured the child as commodity

model. Here the child was the property of the parents (as opposed to totalitarian states, such as

the Third Reich, where children were the property of the state) and whose future could be

disposed of as a commodity. The practice of child as commodity continued through to the end of

26
the 20th Century (James et al, 1998) with the compulsory indenturing of pauper children, the

arbitrary disposition of child migrants, and with the state or church’s assumed legal responsibility

for orphans or the children of destitute parents (Knowles, 2007).

2.5.4 Child as Citizen

The conception of childhood as a valued life-cycle phase in its own right, rather than as

preparatory adulthood, and the child with rights is a very late development. The United Nations

Convention on the Rights of the Child dates from only 1989 and is contemporaneous with

legislation in the UK, Canada, and USA. Much of the legislation also concerned the rights of the

child when parents divorced and reflected wider familial and social change.

Conceptions of childhood are difficult to establish historically in the face of contradictory

evidence and can be informed by recent history through scrutiny of the prevailing norms within

social groups, usually white middle-class indigenous families. Any consideration of how youth

create their metaphors of identity, relate to, and colonize the space they inhabit must recognize

that we are in the age of the rights-bearing child and that earlier conceptions (especially of child

as commodity), continue to resonate through society and adult expectations of adolescents.

2.6 Summary

In this chapter, the discussion of metaphors of identity, notions of space and place, as well

as conceptions of childhood have made clear the variability of such notions over time and in

historical context. This prepares the presentation of the youth participants in the Canadian

research project from which I draw my data, as one that is particularly sensitive to current times.

The next chapters make it clear that there is some continuity between conceptions of childhood

and metaphors of postmodern adult identities as contextualized in urban spaces and favourite

places.

27
 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the methodology adopted for this study of youth’s processes of ne-

gotiating cultural differences and democratic identity formation. The following several sections

explain in detail the reasons for choosing a qualitative case study (3.2); ethical considerations

(3.3); recruitment of participants (3.4); the development of research instruments (3.5); methodo-

logical rigour (3.6); participants’ profiles (3.7); as well as specific methods used for data analysis

(3.8). A summary (3.9) closes the chapter. These matters are important as a research design is a

plan for “assembling, organizing, and integration information (data), and it results in a specific

end product (research findings). The selection of a particular design is determined by how the

problem is shaped, by the questions it raises and by the type of end product desired” (Merriam,

1998, p. 6).

3.2 Justification for Adopting the Qualitative Paradigm and the Case Study
A qualitative research perspective was adopted here because the paradigm focuses on

“discovery, insight and understanding from the perspectives of those being studied” and as such

it offers “the greatest promise of making significant contributions to the knowledge base and

practice of education” (Merriam, 1988, p. 3). In other words, a qualitative perspective allows for

in-depth interpretive inquiry, giving public voice to youthful participants, thus conveying

biographically meaningful experiences that occur within the confines of a local community

(Denzin, 2003). Within the qualitative paradigm, the researcher attempts to answer the ‘how’ and

‘why’ of decision-making as well as the ‘what, when, and where’. Moreover, an interpretive

approach to qualitative research seeks dramatic stories, narratives that separate facts from stories,

28
telling moving accounts of private and public issues, while intending to convey these to the

reader, the public, for meaningful understanding, judgment and action.

Further to the selection of the paradigm is the choice of the case study as a specific

design since it is inductive in nature (Merriam, 1998). Given the nature of the problem and the

questions raised, it is necessary to provide description using words and pictures rather than

numbers or statistics. In asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions, it is the case study that is appropriate,

rather than an experimental design. Thus, I take up the descriptive case study, since the end

product desired is a holistic intensive description and interpretation of a contemporary

phenomenon.

The case study is bounded, particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic (Merriam, 1998). A

bounded system can be examined, whether it is a program, event, social group, single school,

innovative program, or an institution, that is, an instance drawn from a class (Adelman, Jenkins,

Kemmis, 1983; Smith, 1978). Moreover, the researchers are interested in insight, discovery, and

interpretation rather than hypothesis testing. In this research study, a group of self-selected

adolescents enrolled in two local high schools are studied with respect to their views of

themselves and the spaces they inhabit. The study is particularistic as it focuses on particular

situations, events, places, and phenomena. It is small scale, problem-centered, and takes a

holistic view of the situation. The study involves thick description, meaning the complete literal

description of the incidents and entities being investigated. It also means interpreting the

meaning of the data in terms of cultural norms, mores, community values, deep-seated attitudes,

and notions (Guba and Lincoln, 1981, p. 119). This study is heuristic as it illuminates not only

the participants’ understanding of their own views and spaces, but also the researcher’s, thus

bringing new understanding of the youth’s data, uncovering new relationships, and leading to

29
rethinking of the phenomena under study (Stake, 1981). Inductive reasoning allows

generalizations and concepts to emerge from the examination of the data, grounded in the

contexts, thus this approach to research leads to discoveries of new relationships, concepts, and

understandings, rather than the confirmation of hypotheses. The qualitative approach examines

specific instances and in doing so, illuminates a general problem or issue.

Within the qualitative research design, the role of the researcher is to uncover the

participants’ interpretation of the realities of the social worlds they inhabit (Walsham, 1995). The

interpretive perspective assumes that the world is constructed of multiple contending realities

and can only be fully comprehended by investigating those realities as fully as possible (Berger

& Luckman, 1967). Within a sociologically constructed world, reality is not an objective or

positivist entity or a predetermined position, rather it is a world that is inherently subjective,

negotiated, and evolutionary in nature:

Our knowledge of reality is gained only through social constructions such as

language, consciousness, shared meanings, documents, tools and other artefacts.

(Klein & Myers, 1999, p.69)

The key factor is not what a given space or place means to others, whether it is so designated by

civic authorities or how they envisage and signify its use (Barthes, 1967). Nor is space about

how adults relate to it or even necessarily how one’s peers relate to it. Quite the contrary, an

interpretive approach is a subjective and naturalist ontological enquiry [from ontology - an

investigation into categories of ‘being’]. Within this approach, a public space can be a place for

meeting friends, or feeling secure or even threatened. For example, a shopping mall has many

meanings depending upon the reasons for visiting it: for shopping, assessing possible future

needs, or socializing with friends.

30
 As researcher, I appreciate the process of personal exploration of youth’s own raison

d’être. The meanings that youth ascribe to places, be these personal and idiosyncratic, remain

mediated by the world and through the process of being with others in that world (Heidegger,

1962). Although venues have personal significance, they also have significance for others. To

turn to the example of the shopping mall, it is a shopping mall; whether one chooses to frequent

it or not, and is designated as such on the city map. The urban geographical features identified by

the youth as having personal significance also have designations shared in common with others,

but the personal significance and the actual and perceptual activities that youth engage within

those spaces are unique and idiosyncratic.

3.3 Ethical Considerations

In social research, with any participant group, it is essential that no participant be

disadvantaged by participation or non-participation in the research (Homan, 1991). The ethical

standards are particularly rigorous, given the youthful age of participants and the involvement of

schools in providing access while monitoring activities that students are engaged through the

school, thus fulfilling their legal obligations.

The overall research project received ethical approval from the University’s Conjoint

Ethics Review Board (Appendix B), and subsequently an approval to proceed from the school

boards concerned. A two-page letter of invitation, intended for prospective participants,

described the project and its ethical dimensions, and included a consent form to be signed by the

parent or guardian of the participant. To this, the overall project added a consent form to be

signed by the adolescents desirous of participating, as the principal research team assumed that

young people, 14-15 years old, were capable of making such a decision.

31
3.4 Recruitment of Participants
After receiving ethical approval from the University’s Conjoint Faculties Ethics Review

Board, and the appropriate offices of the city’s two school boards, initial contacts by the main

researchers in each city were made by phone and e-mail by the principal researcher to the

administration of high schools with diversity in the urban area, then followed up by e-mails and

faxes to provide a brief summary of the project. In Calgary, two schools were deeply interested

in participating in the project. The administration of each school facilitated contact with the lead

teacher of the Social Studies department and their teachers.

Of the two schools in Calgary interested in having their students participate in the study,

one school was in a working-class neighbourhood and the other drew students from several

areas, resulting in a mixed school population in terms of socio-economic, cultural, and racial

characteristics. In practice, access was dependent upon the support provided by the social studies

teachers or other staff. In classes where teachers embraced the project with enthusiasm and

articulated their commitment by allowing participants to use some class time to pursue the

research or assigned additional ‘points’ towards their class-based grade, participation was both

high and sustained. Where potential participants were advised that any time taken out of class

had to be replaced at a later day, and/or that all homework had to be handed in time, and/or that

any mishap on the student’s own time, participation was low. At the same time, principals in both

schools, administrative staff, teachers, and counsellors made this project possible. Many of the

teaching staff encouraged participation by making the project part of their yearly school credits,

finding extra time to allow students to meet with the research team and complete their research

project work.

Once access to students was granted, initial encounters with potential classroom

participants focused on explaining the project and working through the consent form to be given

32
to participants and parents or guardians. Only students who returned signed consent forms were

included in the study, as required by ethical codes of conduct of research with human subjects

(see Appendix C). It remains important to consider that non-participation, regardless of the

reason, is also of research interest; it cannot be assumed that non-participants have the same

attitudes or would provide similar data as those that did participate (Moser & Kalton, 1971).

Care was taken to ensure sufficient participation levels in order to carry out the study in three

cities: a very large city in Central Canada and two smaller cities in Western Canada, and to

provide an in-depth analysis of the patterns.

During initial encounters with groups of potential participants, the contents of the letter of

invitation and the consent form were read aloud and opportunities were provided for the students

to read it themselves, ask questions about it, and engage in discussion with the research team.

Efforts were taken to ensure an optimum level of understanding about the project. As far as could

be ascertained, levels of literacy and understanding did not pose barriers to participation. All

consent forms returned to the research team on subsequent visits to participating Calgary schools

were logged and retained in locked filing cabinets at the University of Calgary in the research

laboratory of the Principal Researcher.

Overall, the process of obtaining ethical approvals in three cities and access to area

schools took several months.

3.5 Development of Research Instruments

The research project, implemented in two schools in Calgary, one school in Winnipeg,

and two schools in Toronto, provided opportunities to assemble different types of data using

different research instruments in order to achieve rigour and to provide the research with

academic credibility (Yin, 2003; Simons, 2009; Bell, 1993). Credibility is also achieved as the

33
research design is held in common with on-going work in both Toronto and Winnipeg as part of

the overall main research project. Having multiple forms of instrumentation within one data

collection period provides a richer research situation, allowing multiple perspectives for

addressing the research question for Year One:

 How do processes of inclusion and exclusion experienced by Canadian youth

contribute to the development of differentiated identities located in civil

society?

This question gives way to a broad theme for Year One: Situating self and others spatially and

politically.

In Year One of the overall research project, four types of data were collected. A socio-

demographic form was designed to gather basic personal information (see Appendix D). Flowing

from the year’s question and theme, three research techniques were designed to elicit relevant

data: (1) initial focus group conversation, (2) urban mapping exercise, and (3) photoscapes of

places of inclusion/exclusion and safety/danger, accompanied with semi-structures interviews.

All conversation with participating youth were audio-taped, as described in the successful

application of the three lead researchers, resulting in funding from the Social Science and

Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and later, the Prairie Metropolis Centre of Excellence.

Introductory Focus Group. To establish a sense of rapport, the young people engaged

around two topics of interest: what it means to be/become a Canadian and what they like/dislike

(in general and about countries of origin and of residence, including Canada). This technique was

used to introduce the participants to the project, gather baseline demographic data and to clarify

the research project. Students were randomly placed into focus groups of six - eight students to

discuss these questions. Following the first focus group, participants completed a short survey

34
intended to provide basic socio-demographic data (e.g., age, sex, ancestral group, birth place,

parents’ birth place, length of time in Canada, religion, and religion of parents) and information

for follow-up purposes.

Urban Maps. In a second session, participants were provided with small-scale overview

maps of their city, in several sections. They were instructed to indicate their preferred places,

what they do there, whom they meet, and why they go. The mapping exercise was followed by

an explanatory mini-interview.

Photoscapes. The young people were given disposable cameras (or roll of film if

personal/family cameras were available) and asked to photograph places where they feel safe or

in danger, included or excluded. Photos were placed in real or digital photo albums, each

participant was asked to comment on the places and their meanings in an audio taped mini-

interview. Participants were encouraged to talk about their experiences and activities, thus

providing a form of visual ethnography from their personal perspectives, identifying their own

roots/routes, routines, and the narratives that their ethnoscapes are plotted through.

Part of my work as Research Assistant was to participate in the development of these

research instruments. At the same time, I enrolled in a qualitative research methods seminar in

the Dept. of Anthropology with Dr. Alan Smart as instructor, in order to acquire from the hands-

on approach inherent in the course, the research knowledge, insights, and skills necessary for my

role. The development of each instrument in Year One benefitted from discussions with the co-

researchers, the instructor, and other students enrolled in the same course, allowing for the

maximum negotiation through several versions before settling upon the final version of the

instrumentation.

35
 The development of the research instruments, particularly the urban maps and

photoscapes, was both innovative and time consuming. The developmental process was an

important learning opportunity for all those involved in the project and acknowledgement is

given for all the feedback provided by colleagues in the piloting of the instruments. The specific

research instruments developed include: protocols for the focus groups, an urban mapping

booklet, two additional booklets for the planning and debriefing of the photography task, a

protocol for the reflective interpretive interviews of the urban maps and photoscapes created by

each of the participants. The value and limitations of each data collection instrument are

discussed below.

3.5.1 Socio-Demographic Form

Socio-demographic forms were provided in the first data collection period that also

included the focus group (see Appendix D). Useful for subsequent analysis, the key topics on the

socio-demographic form are: self-definition; occupation; favourite and least favourite work;

favourite free time and least favourite activity; ethnicity; religion; education of participant and

parents (or guardians); school attended; civil status of parents.

3.5.2 Focus Groups

Familiar to students, the focus group technique is an effective way of putting participants

at ease, and is an oft-used method to gather data from multiple participants at the same time and

is therefore resource-effective (Cronin, 2001). The internal dynamic of the focus group is capable

of generating valuable and complex data. Participants who might be reticent or too self-

conscious to talk in a one-on-one situation are more likely to be at ease in a group situation, and

this research technique allows for more authentic and definitive responses within the group

setting. The skills of the facilitator are essential in order to manage the internal dynamics of the

group and the inherent predisposition for dominant group members to control the discourse

36
3.5.3 Semi-Structured Interviews
A semi-structured qualitative interview approach was used at various points in the data-

collection process and enabled participants to revisit the Year One data, elaborate, and explain

the significance of their photo albums, termed ‘photoscapes’, and their preferred places on pre-

printed maps of city areas.

The customary cautions contained in the research literature are noted but not considered a

major order limitation in terms of generating authentic material: (a) researcher bias, where the

researcher hears only those responses that confirm their preconceptions (Selltiz, Jahoda et al,

1962); and (b) interviewee bias where the participant provides answers they think the researcher

wants to hear (Borg, 1981). Interviewer bias was mitigated by discussion of the research

approach and findings with University colleagues. In addition, research participants who were

not evaluated for school grades were less likely to be influenced by any desire to please and

answer in ways they believed we wanted them to. Finally, through on-going discussions with the

participants it became possible to renegotiate the relationship and to set the teacher role aside to

maintain a neutral but observant researcher stance.

In reviewing the interview transcripts, recurring key themes were identified as were

possible ascriptions of metaphors of identity before being subjected to the sequential process of

data analysis and re-visitation (Fielding & Thomas, 2001; Wollcott, 1994).

3.5.4 Photoscapes
By comparison, photoscapes are designed to identify places of inclusion and exclusion,

and safety and danger, a purpose made explicit to the participants. In addition, the photos are

intended to provide a visual representation of the participants’ places, as seen with their own eyes

through the camera’s aperture, as well as their meanings with respect to identity formation and

localization processes. Photographing well-frequented venues offered opportunities to relate to

37
spaces as places of meaning. Furthermore, the recurrence of photographic elements in a

participant’s photo album provides opportunities for the youth to determine the importance and

significance of each place, which could subsequently be further elaborated through interviews

and discussions.

A protocol of possible questions (Appendices E & F) on planning and interpreting

photoscapes) was formulated for use by the researchers and assistants in discussing the photos

and their selection for inclusion in the youth’s photo albums. A possible issue considered security

guards in shopping malls who tend to move groups of youth along before the latter could be

perceived as threats to the interests of retailers and adult shoppers.

Gathering information and galvanizing participant interest in, and commitment to, the

research project, the use of photographs, and recording methods was also intended as an

opportunity to share photos with friends and thus generate a discussion of the significance of

sites. This was expected to supplement the primary data gathered from direct discussion and

semi-structured interviews.

Disposable cameras were provided to all participants. In one case, a ‘dog ate’ the camera

and a second was provided. Photo development services and photo albums were purchased

through a bulk deal of scrapbooks with kindly storekeepers. Two sets of prints and two CD-ROM

copies were made; one set of each was for the participants to keep, the second print set was for

the scrapbooks, and the second CD was for research reference analysis. A planning booklet

(Appendix E) and a reporting booklet (Appendix F) were developed for use with the participants.

Participants were questioned on the significance of the photographs. In order to maintain

the photoscapes as representations of the urban environment, participants were asked not to

include friends or any other people in their photographs for ethical purposes, an admonition that

38
was often disregarded so these photos were excluded from the scrapbooks. In cases where taking

photographs might arouse unwanted attention, such as in the shopping mall, participants were

asked to photograph the exterior of the venue and verbally describe or draw the interior.

3.5.5 Urban Mapping

Urban mapping is a relatively recent addition to the repertoire of research

instrumentation, first developed in the research project, Finding the Way Home, by geographers

and anthropologists within a critical studies approach, at Goldsmith College in the England

(Back, Cohen & Keith, 1996). The sociological dimension of urban mapping concerns the

control and use of the urban landscape and how social groups compete for space and access to

desired environmental goods within the city (Bairoch, 1988; Kareiva et al, 2007). As such, urban

mapping has a political dimension at group and neighbourhood levels, including the social class

and ethnic compositions of neighbourhoods and access to amenities. On an individual level,

urban mapping relates to an individual’s responses to features within the urban landscape and the

possible uses; for example, as sites of leisure or as locations for the acquisition of social capital

(Back et al, 1996; Cohen, 1999; Coleman, 1990).

The urban mapping booklets included a map of each section of the City of Calgary - all

four quadrants, Downtown core, and a blank page for areas outside of the city. Facing each map

was a set of questions with space provided for written responses. The participants were asked to

indicate their two most preferred places, whether they frequented these places alone or with

friends, routes taken, and places avoided (see Appendix G).

The urban mapping exercise is an attempt to capture participating youth’s process of

taking up space as one’s own by marking maps to convey the significance of the area while

stripping the map of nonessential details. Mapping provides insight into the journey of the

39
participants and provides visual and photographic representations for triangulation and further

discussion with participants.

3.6 Methodological Rigour

The development of the key themes as part of data analyses was on-going throughout the

research process. Through revisiting the literature and discussions with my research supervisor,

colleagues, and other research assistants, the relevance and importance of the themes for the

analyses became reinforced. This work of defining and refining the analyses, carried out by a

team approach, also mitigated against the challenges of objectivity or subjectivity that can

otherwise be faced by researchers working alone (Knight, 2002).

Nevertheless, the research approach has remained exploratory, without any clear notion

of an end-state to the enquiry (David & Sutton, 2005). The research does not make any claims of

developing grounded theory; however, the findings can be seen as contributing to the

formulation of those theories (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

For the purpose of this thesis, the data analysis has been achieved in part by applying a

first level of posited analysis of the self-reported and observed behaviours of the participant

group, followed upon by the identification of the congruence of metaphors and the

discontinuities between the initial metaphoric identifications and those observed, including those

instances where identities coalesced and/or mutated. From this point on, it becomes possible to

propose the creation of new identifications and their significance for the development of an

effective theory of metaphoric identifications. A better understanding can then be gained of youth

interactions within the world, their construction, and projection of meaningful identifications in

specific social settings.

40
 The comparison of data elicited through multiple research instruments has ensured the

rigour of primary findings and are presented herein as a series of portraits that exemplify the

internal coherence of the case study approach to qualitative research (David & Sutton, 2004; Yin,

2003; Simons, 2009). The process allows the participants to be viewed as whole human beings.

By examining the portraits in context using a metaphorical structure, it is further

presupposed that some underlying principles of behaviour can be found. From this, it is possible

to complexify the findings and to generate hypotheses for future research.

3.7 Participants Profiles

Table 3.1 Participant Table

Pseudonym School Gender Metaphor Notes

Gonzo A M Pilgrim Stayed with project

Queen B M Player/Sportif Moved to another school the next year.

Crazy Lady A F Vagabond Moved to another school the next year.

Good Girl B F Fashionista Stayed with project

Captain Crack B M Citizen Stayed with project

Nameless A F Tourist Moved back to Britain the next year.

White Ninja A F Flâneur Stayed with project

The table above gives a short summary of the participants who were eventually chosen to serve

as exemplars of each metaphor in this thesis. Some of the facts above may also give the reader a

sense of completeness after reading the results below.

3.8 Procedures for Analysis

41
The data was collated through the use of large charts and spread sheets; these facilitated the

search for patterns that were then compared to Baumann’s metaphors discussed in Chapter Two.

Seeking to match each metaphor to the patterns resulted in the identification of anomalies and

the possibility of new metaphors; this is presented in the analysis in Chapter Four.

M
N
d
p
th
u
y
la
e
fw
m-g
ti
in
ro
Bc
s
b
E
v C
,F
.'x
tt z
p
a
m
5
w
u
ro
e liy
fd
th b
ti
g
;
n
c
s

Fig. 3.1 Reflexivity of the Investigation

Triangulation and reflexivity (Appendix L) were achieved through the application of

research instruments which access differing perspectives of the core data through transcripts of

conversations held before and after each of the activities - demographics, photoscapes, and urban

mapping (David & Sutton, 2004). Included, are excerpts from transcripts and the participants’

written responses and accounts, provided verbatim where applicable. The principal mode of data

interrogation was actualized through repeated revisiting of the transcripts in conjunction with the

42
photoscapes and urban maps as the prelude to developing a best fit for metaphors of identity

(Baumann, 1996) and determining whether the five initial identities were discrete or held

elements in common with others (Wolcott, 1994). The examples which did not resonate with

Baumann’s typology provided interest and exemplified the complexity of identity construction as

well as the process of identity development and migration that characterizes this stage of

maturation (Jaffe, 1998).

3.9 Summary
Set within a larger whole, this sub-section of the overall research has offered

opportunities for a qualitative analysis. Presented in the next chapter, is the relevance of social

capital, heterotopias, and metaphors of identity as inter-related concepts for youthful navigation

in an urban environment. This research has particular resonance when set against the changing

conceptions of childhood in Canada, especially in urban areas, the country retains its substantial

rural environment in individual provinces, but without the level of dense urbanization in Europe.

The research approach in this project builds in much complexity as it draws data from

multiple sources, with an ongoing creation and discussion process with each of the instruments.

The discussions help provide the most insights into the choices and actions of the participant.

The findings are discussed and interpreted in Chapters Four and Five respectively.

43
 CHAPTER 4: Qualitative Youth Portraits

4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents seven youth and their metaphors of identity. The Pilgrim, Tourist,

Vagabond, Player and Flâneur are the metaphors proposed by Baumann as discussed above. In

the analysis I have identified youthful variants of the above as Pilgrim, Tourist, Vagabond,

Player/Urbane hero/Sportif, Flâneur /Shopper, Fashionista, and Citizen. As Baumann was

deriving a set of identity metaphors that flow from the one ‘Pilgrim’, he was not intending to be

comprehensive although he does provide a good basis from which to start. The findings will

show the difficulty of putting humans into categories.

Consistent with the case study methodology (Simons, 2009) the qualitative data are

presented as a unified whole, drawing upon responses, focus group where applicable,

photoscapes, urban mapping, and the discussions and semi-structured interviews generated, to

document the identifications of the participants presented as profiles. The purpose is to examine

the applicability of the Baumann metaphors to youth in a Western Canadian city in contemporary

times, as well as their permeability and possibility of cross-over and new metaphors (Baumann,

1996). To prepare the analyses, we draw first from the participant charts based on data from the

socio demographic forms, such as the participants’ views of work and leisure including

volunteering (Table 4 .0), followed by Table 4.1, Indicators of Postmodern Identity Metaphors.

These tables were used to compare the participants’ responses with respect to the photoscapes as

well as urban mapping in order to make sense of the data and locate possible candidates for the

various metaphors. In comparing these data sets, I also found other consistent patterns and

hypothesized new metaphors beyond the five original cases.

44
Codenam Queen Captain Crazy Lady Nameless Good Girl White Gonzo
e Crack Ninja

Metaphor Player Citizen Vagabond Tourist Fashionist Flâneur Pilgrim

a

Job Pizza Went tree NA Being me Sometimes NA Homewor

Making planting in , I dunno k
summer

Most Making Sleep NA Sleeping Meeting NA NA

Favourite pizza people
Work
Activity

Least Wash Work NA Cleaning Dealing NA Tests,

Favourite dishes, rabbit cages with mean doing
Work talk to customers homework
Activity dumb
people

Most Skateboar Video Hanging out Snowboardin Sports Music, Playing

Favourite d games/ with my g going and
Free Time friends places listening
Activity football to music,
movies

Least Doing Badmington Watching Swimming Doing Sitting, Homewor

Favourite nothing TV dishes doing k
Free Time nothing
Activity

Volunteer No None Grandfather’ Brownies, No - -

s house and little kid
school

Desired Welder Lawyer or Going to Political stuff Fashion Business Recording

Career Constructio school and or backup industry managemen engineer
n Worker get real accounting t
career

Likelihoo Very Very likely Somewhat Likely Likely Very likely Likely
d of likely likely
success

What Not Grades/ Not going to End of the Self- Money for Money
would passing money school world esteem education
prevent grade
it?

Table 4.0 Work and Leisure

45
Table 4.1 Table of Indicators with respect to Metaphors of Postmodern Identity
Metaphor Table of Indicators
s of Goal- Relationsh Relationshi Relationshi Relationshi Relationship Morality Political
Identity
Purpos ip to p to Time p to Home ps to s to Self Life
e Space, Others
Travel
Pilgrim To seek Eternal Searches in Distant Temporarily Quest for Without Without
truth distant, distant understandin distraction distraction
barren g of self & of the of the
places life world world
Tourist To visit Punctual; Travels to Returns Curious Accumulates Without Avoids
the detailed experience home towards symbols of commitme commitme
unknow knowledge the exotic periodically exotic others travels, part nt nt; only
n of temporarily abroad; brag of oneself temporary
schedules & show off attractions;
& photos &
timetables mementoes
at home
Player/ To win Continuous Travels to Home as All others as Rational self- Life is a Winning as
; game goes play safe place players; interests game temporary
Le on although distinguishe moral
Sportif game s winners & purpose
continues loses
here too
Flâneur To see Limitless Travels to Home as Masterless; Inconspicuou No Does not
& be observe pad, to keep detached s self as recognitio get
seen notes, from the observer n of involved
change observed invasion of
clothes others; others with
fragments eyes
human life
with eyes;
may be seen
as threat to
others
Vagabon To Timeless Wanders None, takes Avoidance Not self- Survival in None
d wander without up margins directed; not zones of
purpose; resilient; risk /
limited wanders danger
movement without
within conceptualisi
marginal ng
spaces experiences
unlike tourist
& pilgrim
Shopper To Open; Off Centred on Place of Together we Anonymous, Shopping Citizen-
consum to the mall shops; display; shop; cool, as satiety consumer;
e anytime malls; cafés; storage & arrogant insecure, & disintereste
and other exchange towards anxious, distraction; d

46
 places of lesser branded shopping opportunist
consumption shoppers identity, as
wears logos anonymity
of preferred within
brands; masses;
products without
define reflection
identity or
coherence
?
Citizen To Punctual - May be To Joiner; Articulate Engages To express
voice, relationship attached contribute/fi collaborator self with others voice, to
to seek to political locally, nd oneself at ? to search act, enact;
fairness events & nationally & home, in for best transact;
, issues OR international community solution participates
justice? to parties/ ly for all? &
policy deliberates
positions;
also
continuous
dialogue,
participa-
tion,
discussion

4.2 Metaphoric Presentation of Five Youths

Five youth are presented as relatively clear cases that are consistent with and that serve as

exemplars of Baumann’s metaphors of identity: Gonzo as the Pilgrim, Nameless as the Tourist,

Queen as the Player/Sportif, Ninja as the Flâneur / Shopper, and Crazy Lady as the Vagabond.

Two additional metaphors arise from the data: Good Girl as the Fashionista; and Captain Crack

as the Citizen. Table 4.1 above summarizes the qualitative data comparisons used to make sense

of the participants’ data and their metaphorical placement. Below are the remainder of the tables

from the socio-demographic forms with the data collated for comparison with the Table of

Indicators, that is, career aspirations (Table 4.2), mothers’ information (Table 4.3) and fathers’

information (Table 4.4).

47
Table 4.2 Career Aspirations

Codename Volunteer Desired Career Likelihood of Prevention of

Success [1-6] Success

Good Girl No Fashion 2 Self-esteem

Queen No Welder 1 Not passing

Capt Crack - - - -

CrazyLady Grandfather’s Going to school, get a 3 Me not going to

real career school

WhiteNinja n/a Business 1 Money for

education

Gonzo n/a Recording Engineer 2 Money

Nameless Brownies, little kids, Political stuff or backup 2 End of the world.

school accounting

Table 4.3 Mother’s Information

Codename Queen Captain Crazy Nameless Good White Gonzo

Crack Lady Girl Ninja
Ethnicity British Native Don’t British Canadian Russian English
stepmo (Blackfoot) know Liverpool
m
Religion - None - Christian Christian Christian -
Present - Other Gr. 12 PhD in HS HS Post Sec.
Education Engineerin
g
School - College High - College - -
being School
attended
Civil - Canadian Don’t Immigrant Citizen Citizen Citizen
Status Know

48
 Occupation - CBE Safeway -- Manager Home College

The Tables shown here are abbreviated for inclusion here, with original answers

indicated, for instance, the use of ‘Canadian’ or ‘citizen’ for civil status. Abbreviations, such as

CBE (Calgary Board of Education), HS (High School), and Post Sec. (Post-Secondary), are used

here for the sake of convenience. These are spelled out in full on the original documents.

Likelihood of success is on a scale of 1-6, 6 being very unlikely and 1 as very likely.

Table 4.4 Father’s Information

Codename Queen Captain Crazy Nameless Good White Gonzo

Crack Lady Girl Ninja

Ethnicity Scottish/ Father#1 Don’t Irish, born England Scottish Ontario,

British know in England Canadian
Canadian
Father#2
Romanian

Religion Christian Father#2 NA Christian - Christian -

Christian

Education HS Other College - - Grade 10 SAIT

level

School HS - College - - SAIT, Technical

being welding school
attended

Civil Citizen Father#2 Don’t Visitor Citizen Citizen Citizen

Status know
Immigrant

Occupatio - seismic - - - - -
n

49
 Despite the cross examination and constant review of tapes and other sources some of the

above data was not filled out. This may be due to reluctance for some participants to ask too

much of their parents, or perhaps their concentration on other tasks once out of school. SAIT

(Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) is used interchangeably with ‘Technical School’ at

one point. Ethnicity and social groups change with the youth’s perception, for instance Captain

Crack although not born Romanian chooses this and Blackfoot as his ethnicity. Queen keeps his

aspirations to the social level from which he came.

4.2.1 Pilgrim
The youth who fits the metaphor of Pilgrim is Gonzo. Through the three dimensions of

photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of his commentary is

presented here:

Gonzo presents… Gonzo!

Responds to: “Who am I?” “a jester, a chemist, interpreter or whatever you wish… Who

am I? From my point of view I don’t know and that’s for the best.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.2 The art room “This is the art

room where I spend the majority of my free

time…usually I’ll be editing a video or

chewing the fat with my teacher Mr. E. It’s

my favourite class.” (Gonzo)

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 Photo 4.1.3 Blockbuster “This is the nearest

Blockbuster. If I don’t want to make the

journey to Birddog video then I find a bit

more money and come here.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.4 Smitty’s “This is Smitty’s. It’s in

Westbrook Mall about a stone’s throw from

the food court. But it is not part of the food

court. This is a great place to come for

breakfast after a long night.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.5 School “Ah…school. Such a big

part of my life. There early (7:00) three days a

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week for band practise. And even though I don’t belong on any sports teams it feels like

I’m always here.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.6 Band Room So many early mornings.

This is where we make and break music. There’s a lot

of work that goes on here and good music always

comes out of that.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.7 Ben’s House Ben is my

hetero-life-mate. The Wayne to my Garth,

Jay to my Silent Bob, the Ren to my

Stimpy. I met Ben in grade 8 and the rest is

history. He’s probably the nicest asshole I

know, but at least he knows it. In grade

three, an odd kid from the Netherlands was put in my class. He was quite a weird kid.

These days I play in a band with that same odd Dutchman. This is his house where we

jam, hang out and hopefully further ourselves as musicians. We argue here, fight here, eat

here and do all the other normal teenager things.” (Gonzo)

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 Photo 4.1.8 “Alyssa K’s house. Alyssa is

an amazing singer/songwriter who has been

nice enough to let me play with her, write

songs with her and teach her as much as I

can. She in turn has taught me a lot.

Alyssa’s parents are great cooks and have

been nice enough to feed me a few times.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.8 Luke’s house. “This is my

second home. Luke is a fellow musician who

I’ve known for not even a year now. I

usually spend the weekends here, watching

movies or jamming.” (Gonzo)

Photo 4.1.9 Hot Wax “Hot Wax was the first

record store to put my band’s record on the

shelf. Because of this, this is a safe place.”

(Gonzo)

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 Response to questions: “I really didn’t mind the changes. Don’t remember much

of my childhood. Didn’t like friends much. Still don’t, I guess they know too much.”

Response to questions on friends: “a very general term...when talking about

comrades in life….the word can stretch from someone who saves my life to someone

who helps me to find the right bus stop… With that over with, I’d like to talk about

values in my neighbourhood.

Response to questions: “Now I’m not talking about my neighbourhood in the

terms of division by postal district, and if I was, I hardly think I would be the right person

to ask about the values there, but I’m talking about neighbourhood in the sense that

anywhere I feel comfortable and at home is my neighbourhood. From the white cliffs of

Dover to the White Rocks of BC, my neighbourhood stretches the expanse of oceans

mostly due to family. The values that exist here are some of my own, but many I’m

finding have been passed on to me from the likes of society, my parents, my peers and

my critics. But I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. In a country such as this you

have to assume some of the values sometimes contradict, or rather run head first into each

other. Because how can a society learn to respect authority without some examples of

brutality? Just don’t touch my family or anyone I care about and I’m fine with it. It’s the

truth and that’s probably how many people feel. Who cares about the values of the

strangers and the people we have yet to meet, just don’t muck about in my known world.

That is where values come back to an expanded definition of neighbourhood, my world

being my neighbourhood. As for values that pertain to minor grievances, they are pretty

average, things like don’t spit in my general direction and keep your diseases to yourself.

Nothing huge.

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 Response to questions: “But as for politics, I’m turning eighteen in roughly three

months and I’m pretty excited about voting. I’m feeling pretty disconnected from the

whole political process as of now and though I don’t expect much political change in my

lifetime I’m also not sure I want much. I mean if I wanted to live a different life with

different rules I would move to a different country. Why bother trying to change the

country you’re in (if it’s as nice as this one)? It’s obvious that many other people like it

the way it is so why ruin it for them? It’s like if you went to a restaurant and ordered an

egg-salad sandwich but they brought you a tuna salad instead. You can yell, scream and

beat that tuna all you want but it can never be egg salad. Just get off your ass and go get

some egg salad, dammit!”

Response to questions: “…a long time ago, what they were learning and what

they were teaching was that the world was flat and that was wrong. So maybe a hundred

years from now our teaching will not be relevant and will be completely wrong. So the

knowledge that you gain can be …like outside school can be like theories that….towards

the world in general that will be relevant a hundred years from now”.

Response to questions: “A bowl is round and very smooth and a very

complementing shape but a cardboard box is like – wow! – you can either light a fire of it

or put stuff inside it…. friends are the knowledge people and friends and teachers are the

school learning people”

Response to questions: “you know how when you know you are little, you learn

sort of the norms of society and how it functions…the entry into youth is when you

understand that the norms are not completely concrete…and even the people who make

them break them”.

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 Response to questions on adults: “to have come to terms with all those life lessons

and facts and to have given up on trying to change them”.

Response to questions: “...there’s always people around who stereotype because

you can’t [not stereotype], when you walk down the hall, you can’t know everybody

that’s out there, you can’t make proper judgements...so you’ve got to stereotype”.

The Pilgrim puts off immediate gratification in favor of the future rewards that are sought

(Baumann 1996). In this way life becomes first a case of planning the future then living it

marched by a series of milestones or life events. The relationship to time thus is not viewed as an

unbroken span but a series of starts and stops as if a train were moving from station to station on

the way to the final destination. Once on this cycle of linear thinking, a person can put off some

things 'until later', and plan to complete one project before another.

Baumann (1996) envisages the Pilgrim as a person seeking or engaged on a quest, as a

physical movement across territories or an internal search for meaning and enlightenment. The

participant Gonzo most clearly fits this metaphor. Yet the initial placement was in the Flâneur /

Stroller or Player metaphor, exemplifying the complexity of identity formation and the

commonality of surface features that can mislead the researcher, thus the need for an in-depth

case analysis.

Gonzo’s photoscape album exhibits a common theme: music and its creation by an active

person engaged on a quest, rather than as a passive consumer. Supporting photographs that

underscore this reading is Gonzo with friends in an all-night “jam” session and the location of

these spaces, such as the school music room. Gonzo’s music is a conduit to the adult world, it is

deemed socially acceptable to adults and his band is hired by the school to play at school events.

The creation of music is also his choice of career; this differentiates him from other participants,

56
citing “recording engineer” among career intentions with the emphasis upon the travelling and

questing nature of the musician’s career path.

Gonzo’s urban map locates music stores and venues for music-making with friends, such

as McEwan Hall at the University of Calgary. The use of space continues into Southern British

Columbia and particularly the desert as a place of solitude where enlightenment can be acquired,

although he presents with little expectation that this will be the outcome. His experience of

change reveals possible unresolved issues that have lead him in his search for existential

meaning; for instance Gonzo extends, or transforms, the term “friends” into “comrades”.

Gonzo is acutely aware that knowledge, as facts to be acquired, and learning, as cognitive

structures through which enlightenment can be achieved and true maturation attained, are

different concepts. Gonzo differentiates school knowledge from real life knowledge with a

metaphor; school knowledge is like a cardboard box, while knowledge acquired from beyond

school is like a bowl of pancakes.

For Gonzo, youth and members of that social group are ipso facto explorers; seeking out

new ways of relating within society while adults have already slipped into a “groove” by

accepting and conforming to the mores of that society through the application of multiple

agencies. Adults have accepted and “settled” into their lives and no longer seek to bring about

social change. With prescient insight, he identifies the rites of passage between childhood and

adolescence/young adulthood and concludes that being an adult is an essentially reductionist

condition because it means acceptance.

Gonzo believes that maintaining the dichotomy between school and real world

knowledge reduces the power differential between adolescents and adults because if what counts

as real or important knowledge is not communicated through structures that reify the lesser status

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of adolescents, such structures have lesser potency. Gonzo negotiates his relationship with the

school through engagement in making music and receiving positive approbation from peers and

adults (school principal and teachers) while questioning both the value of its primary purpose

and its relevance to his future career.

Music is a mode of engaging with the adult world as an equal and one that he can enter

immediately depending upon his level of commitment and talent; he does not have to complete a

dependency period as an apprentice. Talent shows (Next American Idol) offer enticement to

speed that entrance in much the same way that winning the Lottery offers immediate acquisition;

this is not to reduce Gonzo’s commitment to music, rather, it explains its meaning within the

scope of his life aspirations and the Pilgrim metaphor of identity.

Gonzo’s pattern of social interaction and his friendships are largely among other Pilgrims,

fellow musicians and others. He is aware of the limitations of the reification of power

differentials through stereotyping. Gonzo’s reflexivity and questioning of himself, the world, and

social milieu that he inhabits are characteristic of the Pilgrim historically, as described by

Baumann (1996). Therefore, he is an exemplar of this metaphor of identity.

4.2.2 Tourist
The youth who best illustrates the metaphor of Tourist is Nameless, through the three

tasks of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of her

commentary is presented here:

Nameless presents… Nameless!

Response to “Who am I?”: “In the rain a rainy person, in the sun, a rainy person, in the

snow a rainy person.

Response to “Who would I like to be?”: “myself forever” …“immortality sounds great”.

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 Response to “Place to live”: “England, preferably Coventry, nice parts of London, M/K,

Manchester.”

Response to “as a whole question: “As a whole the photos represent what I can stand

being around in Alberta”.

Response to “Canada”: “…where you’ve lived here long enough to forget your own

identity”…“I mean really the only native people, native to Canada are the ones who have been

shoved onto reserves....“Like swept under the rug…And everyone else has just adapted”.

Response to “Politics”: “...how do you get anything done in this place?”.

Response to questions: “I took a photo of this place because it’s where I live. Taking a

photo of my house was weird because all the neighbours were staring at me. When at my house I

feel safe.

Photo 4.2.2 Skateboard “My skateboard means a lot to me

because all my snowboard stickers are on it. I took a picture

of it in my garage because it’s about the only place I feel

safe riding it.” (Nameless)

Photo 4.2.3 [Flopsy the Rabbit] “I took a picture of her

inside my basement because it’s the only place she is

actually safe. It was important to include her in the

photoscape because she’s my first pet & the only rabbit I

know that pounces.” (Nameless)

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 Photo 4.2.4 [The Park] “this place is important because I

always end up feeling included despite my efforts to exclude

myself. I took this photo when I sat in the car. I had to take

the photo at night when there were no people around.”

(Nameless)

Photo 4.2.5 The Basement “Down in the basement of the

school lives the evil that is the manky ceiling. It makes me

feel unsafe and scared of how long it’s been like that.”

(Nameless)

Response to questions: “Within a week of living in Calgary I had a zoo membership pass.

I’m there quite a lot with my little brothers as it is somewhere that they are welcomed. The zoo is

a safe place.” (Nameless)

[Restaurants] “The only decent fast food place in Calgary

Photo 4.2.6 [Subway]. Some of the Harvey’s are ok, but

most are tack. One of the few restaurant type places in

Calgary that I don’t complain about. Unsafe place, too many

cars.” (Nameless)

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 Response to questions:“Famous Players” “Once again another chain! It is the cinema

nearest to my house so the one I tend to go to. There is nothing special about it, except it usually

rains when I go there. Safe place.

Photo 4.2.7 Petland

“Petland”. “Where Flopsy came from. I go there quite a bit to

buy rabbit stuff. The first place I saw ‘pigs ears’ in bags and

was scarred for life. Safe place, despite the animals.”

(Nameless)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “The Chocolate Shop. Like the only

decent place I know of in Calgary to buy chocolate. Many B-day presents & cards have been

purchased there. It’s always fun to look round. Stupidly safe place.” (Nameless)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “The fountain. It’s at the airport, and after

my first visit to Calgary it’s one of the few things I remembered Calgary by. Safe place –

everything is filmed – even though it’s creepy.” (Nameless)

Photo 4.2.8“View from the Trans Canada”.

“Surprisingly enough standing at the side of the Trans

Canada is the safest place in Alberta.” (Nameless)

Tourists bring souvenirs back in a number of forms. The least tangible but more

important of these is the story of the experiences on the tour. Places to eat, sleep, and in which

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events happened are remembered and retold for the Tourist’s home audience. In this way the

safety of home (eventually) and the elevation of the Tourist’s own social capital (Coleman 1990)

in the telling are acquired and cherished.

Only one participant securely fit Baumann’s Tourist category - Nameless. Her

unwillingness to even engage in constructing or using a code name, nickname, or any sobriquet

that denotes a self-image through which she wishes to engage the world exemplifies Nameless’s

sense of “passing through”, but without the search for meaning that identifies the Pilgrim.

Nameless has recently relocated with her family from Britain, a move she dislikes and she uses

the photoscapes as a way of demonstrating her dislike of her new country. The Tourist’s level of

engagement is contingent upon an eclectic pick-and-mix engagement with places and artifacts

that are considered ‘Other’; this is Nameless’s way of demonstrating an adult identity metaphor

that distances her from, and implicitly denigrates, the social milieu in which she now finds

herself.

The airport is both the actual and symbolic point of arrival and departure for Nameless, it

signifies her self-definition as Tourist, is a preferred space and one where she feels safe. The

Calgary Zoo and Market Mall are also safe spaces. She relaxes at Bragg Creek where she spends

time with her family. The majority of her discourse is about England and her chosen route is

from England to Calgary; a nine hour flight considerable jet-lag, and details how she describes

her most preferred place as the airport.

To what extent Nameless’s metaphor of identity is a long-term mode of engagement with

the world and to what degree this is a proto-adult way of demonstrating her dissatisfaction and

anger at an enforced displacement from her chosen heterotopias is questionable. As a vegetarian,

she claims there is nowhere suitable to eat and what food is offered is not appropriate and/or is

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poorly presented. Will Nameless accommodate to life in Calgary and, if so, will she migrate to

another metaphor of identity

To date Nameless’s only viable metaphor remains as a Tourist only if we assume

Vagabond is inapplicable for her. She makes pertinent comments in the focus group about

immigration and social inclusion that are contingent upon immigrant status or a sectarian divide

(she mentions the history of Ireland). She also makes references to a town/country divide that

include constant negative comparisons between home (England) and her present place of

residence (Canada). Nameless does not wish to engage with her new home and the metaphor of

Tourist melds with her teenage angst and the sense of powerlessness and resentment generated

by the displacement caused by parental relocation; both parents work in the building industry. In

opposition to any assimilation, however temporary, Nameless castigates Canada as a place to

live.

The irony of Nameless’s chosen username is that she is evidently very concerned to retain

her own English identity which is grounded within a nation-state that is increasingly a composite

of incomers and that informs her comments on immigration. She is unwilling to credit any group

other than First Nations as Canadians and denigrates non-indigenous New Commonwealth

residents of the UK. Her comments are profoundly sceptical of Canadian democracy and

political institutions.

Family members, friends, and acquaintances have not signed a consent form as research

participants, thus the need to protect the confidentiality of non-participants as an ethical issue.

Advised not to include people in her photoscapes she provides pictures of her rabbit, Floppsy,

and her skateboard laden with stickers. The skateboard is more a collector’s item than a tool of

active self-expression, as it is with Queen (Player – Le Sportif 4.3.3.), it is also an artifact to be

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used in a safe place - the family garage. Only the photographs of the rabbit and the skateboard

tell us about Nameless’s interior life while photographs of roads and mountains demonstrate her

relationship to her environment as someone passing through.

Other photographs exemplify Nameless’s sense of alienation, exasperation, and yet some

gendered anxieties for example with ‘cleanliness/dirty’ and hence unsafe the “manky ceiling” in

the school basement, which she asserts is dirty, unsafe, and as such is noteworthy. Her notes are

not on the pages of her planning booklet but on its cover, and can be constructed as another

assertion of alternativeness, indicate that some venues could not be photographed, including Wal-

Mart which is also “manky”. Her photos and some of her attitude can be summed up in a web

diagram that she made (below);

Fig. 4.1 Photoscape Booklet of Nameless

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4.2.3 Player – Le Sportif
The youth who fits the metaphor of Player/Le Sportif is Queen. Through the three

dimensions of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of his

commentary is presented here:

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Queen presents…Queen!

Photo 4.3.2 “Shaw Millenium Park – This place is

important to me…because…It’s a place I can go to skate

without getting into trouble. “What I was thinking about

when I took the picture … “. “I wanna go skate.” (Queen)

Photo 4.3.3 “Mac Hall!” “It’s a concert venue! “What I

was thinking …dizzy dizzy (I was drunk).” (Queen)

Photo 4.3.4 “Kensington – What I thought … “I need

to hurry up… I’m hungry” Sweet shops very sweet!”

(Queen)

Photo 4.3.5 “Skaters…It’s a rad skate shop”

Spencer’s Gifts … that place is so stylin.” (Queen)

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 Photo 4.3.6 “Chikko…My 1st choice for a

sponsorship… I bought my 1st skate there…

Good times *sniff* … Buddy’s with the

owner’s brother *thumbs up*.” (Queen)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?: “Forest Lawn [school] … Acting is cool

beans... Theater… What I think here… Having fun being a jackass! What safe place to be… I

think … to me anyway.” (Queen)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “This is what my entire collection is

about: Where I go…in Calgary.” (Queen)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “I see the following patterns in my photo

collection: Mostly skating, being stupid … both…food.” (Queen)

Response to “What does this mean for me? What does this represent?”: (To answer these

questions, I am stepping back from the details and patterns I see, to put my photoscape in a

broader context): “It’s my collection of adolescence in Calgary. It’s not really productive but I

can’t care less. LIVE IN THE NOW!” (Queen)

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 Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “And that is the one we were arguing

about, and so I told this guy off and nasty words were said. Like it started with my buddy and

then escalated with me and then we called the cops.” (Queen)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “Well, I lived in Forest Lawn with my

father, and then I moved with my mother and then I had a breakdown ...Yeah, and that is when I

got mad at everybody, and then I went to foster care in Rundle, and now I am back with my dad

in Forest Lawn.” (Queen)

The Player/Sportif may have many games, yet the one most noticed is that of skateboard-

ing. Staying 'cool' is a skateboarder's modus operandi. Balance and aplomb give one the ability to

take things in stride as they move through the streets, encountering all the difficulties of the city

yet surviving with grace and ease. This game is the epitome of pushing the boundaries of the

playing field as these are the very boundaries of society as well as the danger of acquiring the

Vagabond label. It is for youth to accomplish this under the guise of 'just kids' while they dodge

and defy authority figures in all areas of their travel.

Queen best conforms to the Player or Le Sportif metaphor of identity. He is an

accomplished skateboarder whose photoscapes delineate the topography of areas where

skateboarding is particularly productive, such as the train station, while “avoiding the cops” is a

factor in deselecting some places. He conforms most closely to Lofland’s (1974) urbane hero as

he pushes the boundaries of social acceptance and his game is carried out with his skateboard

and the law enforcement agencies that limit his scope of its use. His code name is taken from his

chosen band “Queen of the Stone Age”.

The game he plays is made more interesting because of the youth/adult dichotomy of the

law. Life is a game and so all other people, whether seeking engagement or innocent bystanders,

68
become drawn in as reluctant players as pieces on a chess board. The shopping mall as a site of

skateboarding is a heterotopia for Queen and for the hapless senior woman spun off her feet

when he collided with her while on his skateboard. The mall was also her heterotopia but an

oppositional one; the game was imposing one definition over another as the player contends with

the old lady for the space, subverting the intent of a mall to a playground much as deCerteau

(1988) envisions. Queen visits other malls in the role of consumer as distinguished from the ones

where he acts out as Player. In any other guise, the malls where he skateboards become un-safe

territory.

On my first encounter with Queen, he had his arm in a cast and held his skateboard in his

other hand as a proof of identity. His involvement in the focus groups was restless with requests

“to get a drink” from a shop outside the school and to which he skateboarded. It may be that

Queen exhibits attention deficit disorder, or that his inattentive restlessness is a deliberate

strategy to check out and test the boundaries of the research context and the researcher. If this is

the case, all activities and all contexts are part of the game which possesses its own internal

coherence and, albeit transitory, amoral purpose.

The photoscapes provide a running commentary on skateboarding and the attributes of

counter-law gaming. He asked when McEwan Hall (University of Calgary) was open so he could

photograph inside the building; Queen commented that he would go in, take the photograph; and

flee from the security guards as though he had committed a crime. Pseudo crime, law infractions,

and officer baiting are all components of a game that is played out through the skateboard.

Downtown is a broad definition of places to skate and other venues include skate shops,

Kensington, the airport, and the Town of High River for inclusion of skateboarding within family

activities. In the winter, Banff offers opportunities to snowboard. His urban map demonstrates

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great breadth for skateboarding and other entertainment seeking journeys that cross the city.

Places to avoid include Forest Lawn and West Hills. Queen’s territory is found all over Calgary

and he travels on foot, skateboard, and public transport engaging with people; his memory is

differentiated by people rather than place. Unlike the Tourist who visits but only tangentially

interacts with those places and people, Queen as Player engages so that all facets of the journey,

terrain, buildings, and people all become devices in his game (Baumann, 1996).

People to avoid are “kids and cops”; this is consistent with the Player’s focus upon the

game and the activity of it, any situation that could lead to confrontation with non-gaming others,

including adults, is to be avoided at all costs. Queen’s history of a dysfunctional home, foster

care, and mental health problems have combined to demand that he develop a carapace of non-

concern with the attitudes of others and a disregard for their approbation and opinion. Queen

engages in skateboarding to display both consummate skill and his readiness to shock (“flipping

the bird”) which causes concern for his own safety and that of others, and he revels in the

“devil’s child” label as an outsider designation. He possesses a high level of self-awareness and

recognizes that his apparent rejection by his biological mother led to his placement in foster care,

which he characterizes as “incarceration”. His mental health problems and the inability to trust

others originate from childhood trauma. Yet he pushes the boundaries of acceptable behaviour

and is Lofland’s (1973) urbane hero par excellence.

4.2.4 Le Flâneur /Shopper

The youth who fits the metaphor of le Flâneur /Shopper is White Ninja. Through the

three dimensions of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of her

commentary is presented here:

White Ninja presents… White Ninja!

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 Photo 4.4.2 My House “I love my house because it is

the one place I know I am always welcome. I can go

anywhere day or night and I will always be safe and

protected.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.3 My car “When I am in my car, I feel so safe. I can go anywhere. I am free. I feel

like it is just me looking out to the world and nobody

can see me.” (White Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Davis’ house] “He is my best friend and I

get along well with his family. I always have fun and feel welcome when I am there.” (White

Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [My Grandparents’ Condo] “When I lived

in Banff, I used to stay here whenever I came to Calgary. I feel that my grandparents’ home is my

home away from home. I know I can go there anytime.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.4 “My school is a pretty relaxed place. I

like to go because I get to see all of my friends. I

feel safe there, I am not afraid of the people there.”

(White Ninja)

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 Photo 4.4.5 “The cafeteria has great food and is a

place you can go to just sit and hang out. I don’t care

about anything when I am there.” (White Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “The art teacher is the coolest teacher in

the school. He never pressures us or gets mad at us and just lets us work at our own pace. I feel

relaxed there.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.6 [Hallways] “I am 5’2” which is considered

quite short today. So, when I walk down the hallways

everybody’s view is right over my head. Also I’m not the

average person and I get odd stares every now and then.”

(White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.7 Gym “I’m not very good at gym and my

teacher didn’t really like me. I do not feel like I fit in

there. I feel extremely out of place and uncomfortable.

Mainly because I am not a very active person, I’d prefer

to go play my drums.” (white Ninja)

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 Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Foods Room] “This is an odd place for

me to hate because I love food but the teacher I have for Foods absolutely hates me and my

buddy. We are fairly good students but she always feels the need to pick on just us two. This

makes me feel like we shouldn’t be there and unwanted. It’s o.k. though as long as we can eat.”

(White Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “I love going downtown. There are so

much fun things to do. Many will disagree but it’s all about exploring and trying to find new and

exciting places to just hang out and have fun. I don’t feel out of place there because there is such

a range of people and nobody is out of place.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.8 “Stephen Ave. is such a great place to be.

There are great stores and a wide variety of people. It’s

also a road where no cars are allowed. It is also right

beside a building with a plus-15 so you can get

anywhere in downtown without going outside. It’s

really fun there and nobody stares or anything. Everyone minds their own business.” (White

Ninja)

Photo 4.4.9 “17th Ave. is also a great place to be. You

can take a whole day to go walk down it, shop, go to a

café, anything. It has so many unique stores and

restaurants. I feel very comfortable there because there

are so many different people there.” (White Ninja)

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 Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “Divine is a wicked store on 17 th Ave. It is

a mix between a thrift and a new clothes/shoes store. It also has a piercing parlour. You can

always find something cool there and the atmosphere is very comfortable. The staff don’t

pressure you and just let you be which I like.” (White Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “Kensington is such a great community.

The people there are so nice. There are many great shops in this area that are very unique. I also

love the look of the residential area. It looks like a great place.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.10 “Hot Wax is a great record store. Although it is

not the best, it is still pretty great.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.11 “Charisma is a unique store as well. It

sells things you don’t find elsewhere.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.12 [Fabutan] “In two words – I’m Albino.” (White Ninja)

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 Photo 4.4.13 [ Chicken on the Way] “Wow! Best

chicken you will ever have. Plus, they have corn

fritters. So, you just can’t beat this place.” (White

Ninja)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: “I’m a little kid and enjoy going to the

zoo. I like to see the animals and I like being outside.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.14 “The Mountain View Bowlerama has great

food and is always fun to bowl at. I have been going there for

a while, so I know most of the people who work there so it is a

relaxed and comfortable place.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.15 Domino’s “Simply, Domino’s makes really

good pizza!” (White Ninja)

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 Photo 4.4.16 “Recordland is the best record store ever.

It has all my favourite music and the people are always

nice. Best of all, it is in the community of Inglewood

which I think is the coolest.” (White Ninja)

Photo 4.4.17 (Earl’s) “Earl’s makes the greatest hot

wings I have ever had. Also it has a very friendly

atmosphere which eases me and I feel very comfortable

there AND I love food!” (White Ninja)

To combine the Flâneur /Stroller with the concept of heterotropia, it is necessary to un-

derstand that the protagonist desires fun, with others or by oneself. Thus, by inserting the self

into the heterotropia of the Shopper and the shopping mall, one can see and be seen as desired. In

addition if one is with friends or safely invisible, the space becomes more familiar and temporary

ownership or the 'right to be there' is achieved. It is thus that the Flâneur becomes the Shopper

for our era.

As developed by Baumann, le Flâneur has its roots in Benjamin’s treatise on the arcades

of 19th Century Paris and their role in social demography; the heterotopias where one sees, and is

seen, in ways that are defined and controlled by the individual. The purpose is to be part of a

space and yet removed from it. It also proves to be an identity that transforms into contemporary

reconfigurations as Shopper and Fashionista.

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 White Ninja has a strong desire for the anonymity of stranger-occupied places where she

is unknown but can observe others. The desire to see and not be seen arises from what she sees

as a physical deformity, albino colouring and short stature. Her car is her greatest asset

(photographed) with the freedom it provides. While in a shopping mall, White Ninja seeks out

comfort zones where her anonymity makes her feel safe. White Ninja’s sense of security extends

to her Canadian nationality and she claims that:

…there are not many issues that bother me in Canada. There is no place in the world I

would rather live. The country is very peaceful and caring about its citizens and that is

what I love most about it…I can walk down the street without a worry on my mind and

nothing I believe it necessary to fear. (White Ninja)

White Ninja’s unsafe places include the gymnasium, where she feels like an outsider, and the

“food room”, where despite a “mean” teacher she concedes that at least she and her friends can

eat. Safe and favourite places include downtown Calgary where:

There are so much fun things to do…many will disagree but it’s all about exploring and

trying to find out new and exciting places to just hang out and have fun.. I don’t feel out

of place there because there is a range of people and nobody is out of place. (White

Ninja)

She has as an extensive knowledge of downtown travel including Stephen Avenue: “… a road

where no cars are allowed…right beside a building with a plus-15 so you can get anywhere.”

White Ninja is well acquainted with downtown shopping malls and pedestrian areas, her list of

venues include 17th Avenue, and within the Kensington district there are Divine (a department

store), Charisma, and Hot Wax. Included in the photoscapes are Calgary Zoo, Bowlerama,

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Chicken on the Way, Dominos, Recordland, and Earl’s. The one area she designates as unsafe

because she is a self-declared albino is Fabutan.

The unsafe designation underscores her desire to see but not to be seen. This extends the

le Flâneur metaphor insofar as in Benjamin’s arcades, le Flâneur might wish their ensemble and

accoutrements to be seen and admired. This externalization, when combined with movement

through spaces, actively seeks to prevent the real self from being observed and interrogated. The

actor limits engagement with society while viewing and enjoying a very personal heterotopia.

For White Ninja, the process of travelling, her knowledge of modes of travel, routes and

locations, and the spaces provided by travelling, offers her the power to achieve the anonymity

that she, through her belief in her own outsider status, is constantly seeking. She is in effect using

travel to not only stay unseen but to subvert the use of the space for her own pleasure, a concept

near to that mentioned by deCerteau (1988)

4.2.5 Vagabond
The youth who fits the metaphor of Vagabond is Crazy Lady. Through the three

dimensions of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of her

commentary is presented here:

Crazy Lady presents… Crazy Lady!

Photo 4.5.2 My Bed “This photo is valuable to me

because it is where I sleep every night. In this place,

I usually feel right at home and I always know it

will be there every day. I visit this place as often as

every day. When I go there, I’m usually with no

one. The last time I went there, I was with myself.

When I go to this place, I usually go to sleep. This is the story behind the place - I know that no

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one will come into my room and all the things that are on my bed will make people think that

I’m not in my room.” (Crazy Lady)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [My great house (undeveloped photo)]

“This photo is valuable because it keeps me warm at night. In this place, I usually feel safe

because I know that if someone comes in, my dog will attack them. I visit this place as often as I

can every day. When I go there, I’m usually with my mom, sister and stepfather. The last time I

went there I was with my family. When I go to this place, I usually clean, eat, sleep, go on the

computer and talk on the phone. This is the story behind the place – I like coming after school

sometimes just because I know my mother and father cook me a good dinner, but then they make

me do the dishes.” (Crazy lady)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [The great big boxed room of 223

(undeveloped photo)] “This photo is valuable because there are great people in the room, they

make me laugh. In this place, I usually feel safe because I know nothing will happen with three

adults and three friends of mine. I visit this place as often as two times a week. When I go there,

I am usually with Linda, Teddy, and Kayla. The last time I was there it was May 2, 2005. When I

go to this place, I usually have a good time. This is the story behind the place – the reason I feel

safe is because I know with six people in the room, I know nothing will happen to me.” (Crazy

lady)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Good friends in Sunshine Hall

(undeveloped photo)] “This photo is valuable to me because I know my friends will always be

there for me in Sunshine Hall when I need them. In this place, I usually feel good about being in

there just because I know they are going to be in the hall when I need a friend. I visit this place

as often as every day, once or twice sometimes even more than three times a day. When I go

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there, I am usually with different people every day. The last time I went there it was May 2 nd at

lunch. When I go to this place, I usually talk to people, do my homework or just sit there. This is

the story behind the place – I know that I have people that I can talk to.” (Crazy Lady)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Brett’s house] “This photo is valuable to

me because Brett is my boyfriend and when I’m at his house, I know nothing will endanger me.

In this place, I usually feel good to be there. I visit this place as often as two to three times a

week. When I go there, I am usually with Brett, his Mom, Dad, brother and sister. The last time I

went there, I was there with Brett. When I go to this place, I usually talk with Brett’s family,

watch movies or just listen to music. This is the story behind the place – I know I will always be

included in that house.” (Crazy lady)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [My Grandfather’s house] “This photo is

valuable to me because my Grandfather has always been there for me. In this place, I usually feel

at home. I visit this place as often as two times a week and on holidays. When I go there, I am

usually with my family. The last time I went there I was by myself. When I go to this place, I

usually spend time with my family. This is the story behind the place – I will always feel safe

because my stepbrother lives there and he has a good head on his shoulders.” (Crazy lady)

Photo 4.5.3. Drug Deals “This photo is valuable to

me because drug dealers scare me. In this place, I

usually feel shitty to be alive. I visit this place as often

as never. When I go there, I’m usually with a friend.

The last time I went there, I was with Steph. When I

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go to this place, I usually stay quiet. This is the story behind the place – I don’t like being around

drug dealers just because I had a close friend die because of a drug dealer.”

Photo 4.5.4 Guns “This photo is valuable to me

because they [guns] scare the hell out of me. In this

area, I usually feel scared. I visit this place as often

as never. When I go around guns, I’m usually with

my Mom or Stepdad. The last time I went around a

gun, I was with no one. When I go to this area, I usually get really nervous.” (Crazy lady)

The Vagabond is confused, often uninformed about the local area as they have just en-

tered. Moving from place to place means little or no network of friends, family, or acquaintances

within the society around them. In addition, the friendless atmosphere makes her more dependent

on any kindness shown to her by others. Should someone threaten her, she has few options for

successful escape.

For the Vagabond, safety is a relative concept, all places are unsafe. Crazy Lady evokes

the sense of lack of direction, aimlessness, and the outward sense of meaninglessness associated

with the metaphor. She has been relocated from her hometown, Ponoka, and is experiencing the

feelings of loss that Nameless has known, but for Crazy Lady, as Vagabond, this dislocation

makes her feel vulnerable as she has been uprooted from a small town/rural environment into a

large city.

Crazy Lady’s safe places are: her bedroom, her house, and at the school, “the great, big

boxed room [where] I usually feel safe because I know nothing will happen with three adults and

three friends of mine…I know, with six people in the room, nothing will happen to me.” Crazy

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Lady is fluent in the explanations she gives of the places she photographs; safety in her bedroom

comes because there are so many pillows on the bed, no one can see her sleeping there and the

house is guarded by a dog. Brett’s house (her boyfriend) is safe as is her grandfather’s house

because: “…he has always been there for me…in this place I usually feel at home”.

The photographs document a melange of safe places and actions that denote safety: hugs,

the bathtub, her mother’s car (provided she is not angry), and the shopping mall where she

spends time with friends. Of more concern, from an educator’s perspective, is the photograph of

a bolt-action telescopic sighted rifle placed on a table with a partial view of a man holding a

drink. There are references to “dark places” that include teaching rooms where she feels

intimidated: “Mr C’s classroom” and “Mr Potter’s office”, where it could be assumed that Crazy

Lady has received reprimands. In the photo-montage are pictures of her friend Heather and

brother Cory who is “into drugs”, and individuals whom she describes as “drug dealers” posed in

a stairwell for her camera.

Crazy Lady visits the city with her brother, whom she does not trust, and who is a

member of gang culture; she expressed interest in her interview about the law and the legal age

for consuming alcohol. She demonstrates uncertainty about the concept of being Canadian, other

than the fact that it is the nationality of her family. She has no concept of multiculturalism and

seemingly little appreciation of a world that extends beyond an immediate hinterland within

which areas and people are differentiated only as safe and unsafe. She has little conceptualization

of her situation within the wider society, appears to live on the margins of society, and is seeking

roots and safety within what appears an inherently rootless existence in an unsafe home through

safe people such as her grandfather. The only reference to her father and the law is in relation to

places where youth can purchase alcohol. Crazy Lady exhibits all of the characteristics of

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Baumann’s (1996) Vagabond and as a potential victim of sexual abuse. As a young person, Crazy

Lady appeared to the research team to be a young person at risk, given her awareness of gang

culture and access to houses where drugs are grown, possibly manufactured, and consumed. The

following year she left the project and the school because of a pregnancy.

4.2.6 Alternative or Extended Metaphors

Although there are other cases of these five metaphors of identity in the data, there are

also cases which go beyond the five derived from Pilgrim in Baumann’s worker of interest are

two more metaphors of identity which clearly emerged in the data: the Fashionista and the

Citizen. While the Fashionista may appear to be an extension of the Flâneur , the Citizen may be

perceived as an extension of the Pilgrim.

4.2. Fashionista
The youth who fits the metaphor of Fashionista is Good Girl. Through the three

dimensions of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of her

commentary is presented here:

Good Girl Presents… Good Girl!

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Locker] “This place is important to me

because this is where I keep a lot of my stuff and I’m there a lot. I felt safe when I was there. (I

was thinking) I was panicked and was in a rush to get it done. (The description) It is really messy

but I don’t really care because I’m not messy anywhere else. (This is how my plan changed) My

plan did not change.” (Good Girl)

Photo 4.6.2 [Mom’s car] “This place is important to me

because this is the car my mom drives me around in. I felt

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safe there. My story about this place is that I get to school in here and to everywhere else I go. I

wanted to take it (the photo) in the day.” (Good Girl)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Deerfoot Trail] “This photo is important

to me because I have to go down this road a lot to go to my dad’s house. I don’t feel very safe on

this road because there are so many crazy drivers on that road. I wanted to take it (the photo) in

the day but I never got a chance.” (Good Girl)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”:Photo

4.6.3 [Downtown] “This place is important to me

because I like to go eat downtown there and go

shopping. I felt safe there because I was with my dad. I

was thinking that it was really cold that night. I wanted

to take this picture in the day.” (Good Girl)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [My room] “This place is important to me

because I am here a lot. I was thinking that I was happy my room was clean. This place pretty

much shows everything that I am interested in and like doing. This place means a lot to me

because I like to be there.” (Good Girl)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [My living room] “This place is important

to me because I’m here with my family a lot. I think I was in a rush when I took this picture.

This place reflects my family’s interests.” (Good Girl)

Photo 4.6.4 [My computer] “My computer is important

to me because I am always on it doing homework. I felt

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tired when the picture was taken because it was late at night. This place is really boring because I

don’t really do anything but sit on the computer.” (Good Girl)

Photo 4.6.5 [Magazines] “These are important to me

because these are my favourite magazines. I felt safe

taking this picture. The story behind this is that I like to

read them because I want to be a model.” (Good Girl)

Photo 4.6.6 Basketball Court “This is my favourite

place to be because I LOVE Basketball and I’m here

every day when it is nice outside.” (Good Girl)

Good Girl presents at first sight as a Flâneur because she spends much of her free time in

the shopping mall, however, this is not in pursuit of heterotopias (Foucault, 1997b), of seeing and

being seen; her presence is underwritten by the continued connection with her mother, who owns

a shop in the mall. She is not a disinterested observer and the disclosure that she hopes to attend

modelling school shows that her engagement in the mall has a deeper and more pragmatic

purpose. Her most important place is her room and most important possession is her collection of

fashion magazines: “The story behind this is that I like to read... (magazines) because I want to

be fashion model.” (Good Girl)

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 Good Girl is an accomplished basketball Player, but this is not her overriding self-

designation. She is also as interested in the clothes worn for the sport as the sport itself, which

sets her into a sub-division of Flâneur as Fashionista. The shopping mall thus becomes a

heterotopia of consumer idealization where an individual lives out their fantasies and the group

becomes the most important facet of the experience; a version of group-Flâneur where the group

and its shared focus, becomes the safe arena to see and be seen. Their entertainment is a shared

vision, their meeting place is a designated area whose meaning is created by those who visit and

interact within it. Social networks are created and exchanged within the shopping malls where

these consumerist Flâneurs mediate. It is a safe place for girls with security and a comparative

absence of boys, a feminine and feminist enclave within the space of the city, modified for the

individual by subverting the use of space (deCerteau 1988).

4.2.6.2 Citizen
The youth who fits the metaphor of Citizen is Captain Crack. Through the three

dimensions of photoscape, urban mapping, socio-demographic form, as well as some of his

commentary is presented here:

Captain Crack presents… Captain Crack!

Response to ethnicity in Socio-Demographic form: White/Redneck/Blackfoot.

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [The Shop] “This place is great because

everything’s supplied and I always feel included. I felt rushed while taking this picture because I

was being rushed. I was thinking about all the work I could get done if I was working. This is

where the popcorn armies fight for control of the mitre

saw and the band saw. This is the wood shop where we

build and learn how to function on a job site.” (Captain

Crack)

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Photo 4.7.2 [The Doorway] “This place is where me and my friends hang out when it’s cold.

This is where people will fight and attempt to assassinate each other. This is just a convenient

place to relax. I felt a little bored and sleepy.” (Captain Crack)

Photo 4.7.3 [The Relaxation space outside] “In this

place I just do nothing and just think of the problems of

the world…aahhh, relaxation. My story of this place is

where superheroes battle for control of the earth! I was

thinking of how cold I was.” (Captain Crack)

Response to “Why did you take this picture?”: [Bedroom] “This is where I get to keep all

of my stuff. When will I get to sleep tonight? Here’s where Jedi’s use the Force to kill all who

oppose them!” (Captain Crack)

Photo 4.7.4 [The School…pictures on page are

chopped into puzzle pieces] “This is where gangs

fight for control over the principle of power.”

(Captain Crack)

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 Even an uninformed person is still well within the definition of the Citizen. The desire to

enact change, the discovery of change in history and preferences exhibited may be unrealistic but

are still the province of citizenship. Building social networks based on relationships is the begin-

ning of each youth's path to make a difference in the world.

Captain Crack has a world vision and conceptualization capability that differentiates him

from other participants. His world ideas do not seem practicable from an adult perspective

although their internal coherence is unique to him and provides a platform to engage the world as

a proto-activist. On the subject of bigotry Captain Crack is eloquent from personal experience,

his approach to social structures is to favour communism as a top-down monolith more easily

subverted than a liberal democracy and: “….as far as equality goes I have not seen one sight of

it….we may be able to trick ourselves into thinking we are all equal but we’re not…“ (Captain

Crack).

His photoscapes are presented as arenas where groups ‘contend’ (his word), using Star

Wars nomenclatures of the” Jedi” and the “Force”. The photographs and how Captain Crack

interacts with them offers a unique semiotic, the place to fight has been deconstructed using a

knife and re-glued, pictures are juxtaposed upside down and sideways to demonstrate a place to

relax. He is very aware of the social pressures and the ways in which globalization and

assimilation erode local and regional cultures:

I believe that there is no real culture anymore. It is all media and corporations…my

way of saying how the media tries to brainwash us with all these things that could

not possibly happen or be done…people define you by what kind of car you

drive...jewellery represents hip-hop’s hold on culture. (Captain Crack)

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 Captain Crack, as Citizen, has evolved from the Pilgrim although it is not clear from his

data if he is conscious of this migration or, indeed, if he has emerged a fully-fledged Citizen. The

Pilgrim seeks enlightenment through engaging in exterior or interior travel as a personal quest;

Captain Crack’s model of Citizen demonstrates both critical awareness and engagement.

4.3 Summary
The discussion in this chapter explored the significance of the portraits as exemplars of

Baumann’s identities and the fragmentation and extension of these identities within

postmodernist society. Baumann’s identities served as a starting point, but, with the development

of additional metaphors of identity, the analysis has moved beyond the Pilgrim as metaphor to

create and exemplify two additional metaphors, Fashionista and Citizen. These two also respond

to the contemporary postmodern society but without flowing from Bauman’s original Pilgrim

metaphor.

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 CHAPTER 5: INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction
The findings relate the core concepts of the research: identity, spatial ordering, the

creation of heterotopias (Foucault, 1997b), and how these are mediated by societal attitudes

towards adolescents, the ways in which these ascriptions have been internalized, rejected, or

more often colonized by the subjects of the research. As proto-adults the claims that youth have

on the spaces around them, as spatial ordering, remain in being and are conceded by or wrested

from adults. The identities that youth adopt are the outcome of heredity, personality, familial and

social experiences, and the power relationships prevailing within and between these parameters.

The youth’s identities are subject to a “trying it out for size” practice, as typifies adolescence

(Jaffe, 1998).

5.2 Spatial Ordering and Identity Formulation

Living in an urban environment demands a reciprocating awareness of urban mores

which opens up the opportunity for exploration of differing social groups and the regions they

inhabit on an exponential scale. As Lefevbre (1974, 1991) makes clear, the appropriation and

colonization of space is a profoundly political activity. Adolescents colonize areas within the

adult city. Shopping malls are a standard feature of capitalist economies redolent with semiotic

indicators (Barthes, 1967): sites offering opportunity for viewing and being viewed (Flâneur

/Shopper), engaging in gamesmanship (Player), fantasy and idealization (Fashionista), or as a

passing show filled with souvenirs, logos, and ephemera (Tourist). For all of these

identifications, the mall provides a focus and contextualizes a sense of group safety.

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 For the Vagabond, the mall may be a contingently safe area but, as we have seen from

Crazy Lady’s narrative, it is also a site of unease and social dislocation. For the Pilgrim, the mall

may be irrelevant; a venue for its primary adult-world purpose of consumerism and simply

passed through en route to the greater prize. For the Citizen, many of these provisos also apply,

although the mall’s significance may be as a site of engagement in public activity.

The shopping mall by its very existence presupposes an aggregate of population and

users. The mall situates power struggles between adolescents and adults over its purpose, and

therefore its representational space (Foucault, 1997b). Public space is negotiated, wrestled from

one group by another, and in the process, becomes a shopping mall for consumerist adults, a

moving show for the Flâneur, or a playing field for the Player (De Certeau, 1988).

Urban environments have public transport systems enabling people to travel rapidly to

and from their employment as only a minority of people live and work in their immediate

neighbourhood. As individuals and groups crisscross the city, the purposes of their journey are

rendered emblematic by their dress: business suit or leisure clothes. Emblems, as logos, are

‘borrowed’ from persons and groups that the individual wishes to emulate, for example, the

sophisticated elegance of the bon vivant, or the prowess of the sports hero. Within a postmodern

city, visual identities can co-exist, side-by-side, with a sense of purpose and/or social role that is

communicated as an emblematic identity (Lofland, 1973).

Carrying a skateboard like Queen or cycling at an intersection explains the purpose of the

activity and is exemplified by the dress. The uneasy Vagabond, for example, Crazy Lady and her

unsafe areas, is often regarded with suspicion alluding back to a masterless man concept, at their

intrusion into given areas. Other research participants, such as Queen, although quintessentially a

Player, become reconfigured as Vagabonds when they with their skateboards enter areas where

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skateboarding is forbidden. Crazy Lady is fearful of the city, it offers her no freedom,

opportunity to meet friends, or to see and be seen, as this demands a level of awareness and

engagement with which she seems to be unfamiliar. Spatial ordering and identity formation are

related one to the other when an individual or group can ‘claim’ space, regardless how contingent

and tangential it may be (Lefebvre, 1974).

5.3 Metaphors of Identity as Ways of Viewing the World

As a researcher, I began from the assumption that the identities described by Baumann

(1996) carry within them ordered and coherent modes of interacting with and in the world.

Depending on the construction placed on the purpose of childhood and adolescence as an identity

in formation (Aries, 1962; DeMause, 1976, 1988; James, Jenks & Prout, 1998; Cunningham,

1995), youth and adults alike may consider these metaphors of identity (Baumann, 1996). The

fluidity of these identities within a specific social and historical context, through the narratives

provided by the participants, it becomes possible to identify relationships held in common to

time, self, home, others, and the wider existential demands of morality and political life. The

indicators of each metaphor (Table M) are reviewed in sequence and in relation to the primary

findings.

5.3.1 The Pilgrim – Gonzo

Gonzo’s stated life purpose is a questing one; “who am I? From my point of view I don’t

know and that’s for the best”. While his assertion may not be taken literally, it signifies the

primary existential drive of the Pilgrim to explore interior and exterior worlds. Gonzo does not

envisage any end-state to his quest but rather, in selecting the life of a musician, accepts that this

career has no well-defined preordained trajectory. By definition, it is anarchic, opportunistic, and

engagement is not generally for financial gain, with the exception of commercially manufactured

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bands. Artistic mastery and questing for new forms of music-making and relating the self to the

music are implicit corollaries of this identity.

The eternal dimension of relationship to travel and space is also a corollary as the

questing nature of the Pilgrim is not bounded. Gonzo’s awareness of the compartmentalized

nature of school knowledge demonstrates that learning is an active and non-bounded activity; the

nature of the Pilgrim’s quest demands a regard beyond the immediate and instrumental towards

the existential. The Pilgrim metaphor has long historical connotations, it is also most aptly

followed within a postmodern society where co-exist multiple and diverse constructions of truth.

Gonzo’s relationship to time in reality takes him into an imagined desert and to actual

remote regions of British Columbia, spaces not contended by others. Gonzo has negotiated these

spaces as his own where he can think, experience remoteness, and actively engage with what he

perceives as his artistic temperament. Space, as fluidity, differentiates Gonzo, the member of the

Pilgrim band (many of his friends adopt the same relationship with the world whether as

affectation or reality), from adults who abandoned their personal or group quests in favour of a

complacent acceptance of prevailing social mores and, “have come to terms with all those life

lessons…and have given up on trying to change them”. Like all Pilgrims, and arguably all

identities, a young person’s driving self-definition is to avoid the “burn-out”, perceivable in their

elders.

Questing and dislocation from home make Gonzo’s connection to the world distant,

tenuous, and dependent upon the evolution of his music career. Gonzo’s relationship with others

is already accepted as largely fragmentary in various social groups while retaining the band as

the core, once again pre-figuring an expectation of a life ‘on the road’ at ‘jams’ and concerts.

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 Viewing the semiotics of his photos even briefly shows a number of venues friendly to

Gonzo’s quest. Although we had asked for ‘safe and unsafe’ representations, he chose the ones

that mattered to him. Music stores, places in which he makes music and discusses it (whether

restaurant or friend’s house) are the focus of his album. In this manner he and his friends subvert

the places of business for their own ends. The restaurant that he attends after long jam sessions

becomes a heterotopia of philosophy and music, similar to the discussion presented by deCerteau

(1988). His ‘visits’ to the desert may take place within these and other venues which for him are

places to meditate and share his life with others of the same persuasion.

The focus on the interior life of relationship to self as a major force entails a search for

inner meaning and Gonzo’s interpretation of reality becomes a quest for understanding on

several levels simultaneously. One of the vehicles is music, which disengages him from the

distraction posed by other negotiated frames of reference such as morality and political life.

Gonzo, as Pilgrim, can therefore be differentiated from Captain Crack as Citizen. The Pilgrim as,

exemplified by Gonzo is not interested in political structures, the manipulation of power, or even

its outcomes, assuming that these do not constrain his quest.

5.3.2 Tourist – Nameless

There is abundant material in the primary data for this participant’s disaffection with her

present life circumstances and for her critique of her present circumstances, it may question how

far her goal is to visit the but not for a quest into the unknown. Nameless’s narrative is consumed

by negative comparisons between Canada and England; she can be envisaged as Tourist who

travels, not to discover or acquire new sensations and souvenirs, but to reify her opinions of her

original location, which she now considers lost.

The precision of her catalogue of venues, especially eating places that do not cater for

discriminating vegetarians, accords with the Tourist metaphor; Nameless passes through a

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landscape where she recognizes the signposts and symbols, the semiotics of these encounters,

(Barthes, 1967) but has no wish for anything beyond ephemeral engagement. She travels to

experience what she defines as the opposite of exotic in the expectation that this is temporary and

her family will return to England. Her sense of alienation makes Nameless ready to return home

periodically to re-assert her relationship to home, contingent upon a plausible relocation back to

England.

It is Nameless who has many of the semiotics of ‘unsafe places’ in her metaphors, though

unlike others they are fairly harmless venues. The ‘manky’ ceiling calls to her something of old

buildings and derelict habitation that strengthens her desire to return home. The side of a

highway shows her desire for escape. Many views are of places that she can talk about when she

really ‘goes home’. As a tourist she will use these souvenirs and venues as a means of explaining

her identity on the road, changing them to her own uses from the intent that society gave them

(deCerteau 1988).

Nameless’s relationship to others is predicated upon the opposition of her life in England

versus her life in Canada. The latter is a ‘curious’ country; her verbal commentary on nation-

hood and national identity is summed up in the thinly veiled pejorative: “where you’ve lived here

long enough to forget your own identity”. Her detailed maps written onto the cover of her

planning programme and photographs of empty spaces, roadsides, and avenues serve as symbols

of travel as relationship to self. Otherwise, Nameless does not accumulate or absorb into herself

other symbols of travel except by expressing limited liking for various suburbs that are

reconfigured into an idealized representation of England.

Her residence in Canada is without commitment, contingent upon parental employment

and guide transitory, her morality remains without commitment and is mirrored in her attitude

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towards the political. In discussion, she is dismissive and derogatory about the federal nature of

the Canadian constitution. She considers Aboriginal First Nations members to be the only true

Canadians, and disregards the tautology of the UK experience as an evolutionary national

identity and its relationship to self. Her prescient and ill-informed comment on the political

system, “How do you get anything done in this place?” exemplifies her sense of detached

distance and lack of commitment, both hallmarks of the Tourist.

5.3.4 Flâneur – White Ninja

White Ninja conforms to the Flâneur typology insofar as she wants to see. She is an

active, intelligent, and observant young person who sees others, but lacks the desire to be seen in

return. Her espousal of this identity metaphor is closely linked with her definition of self as an

outsider and lends itself to the relationship to self – inconspicuous self as observer notation.

White Ninja considers herself on one level to be an outsider; this is confirmed by the unsafe

places she cites, including school, where her height causes her to feel dismissed by peers, while

she also retains a level of engagement; “there is so much fun things to do…exploring and trying

out new places…I don’t feel out of place there...nobody is out of place”. She travels to find

places where she can observe and be part of a group heterotopia (Foucault, 1997b). Her

relationship with home as a construct of space is underscored by her family’s gift of a car, her

pride in it, her sense of this as her own space, as an attenuated home, and its significance for her.

In terms of relationships with others, White Ninja is not wholly detached from those

whom she observes. Her observations are a search for anonymity and a manifestation of lowered

confidence although she is able to detail a list of venues – shops and malls – where she feels she

can achieve invisibility. There is no clear evidence of her level of involvement in political life;

which is consistent with the Flâneur position, who is normally accepted as opting for low

involvement, remaining unaware or unconcerned with the intrusion of their observation of others

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(morality). She is, however, positive in her wider social membership; “there is no place in the

world I would rather live” (Canada) and exhibits a high level of social adjustment.

A brief look at the semiotics of her photo album confirms her desire for anonymity. Tall

buildings amidst which crowds flow, outdoor areas with many places to be unseen and even her

vehicle which is a ‘safe place’ behind glass and on the move. Contrary to her claim that her

school is safe, there are areas in the school that she documents as unsafe, places where she

doesn’t get along with teachers, or feels short. Her love of music and food are also seen as safe,

anonymous shopping places.

5.3.5 Vagabond – Crazy Lady

The Vagabond is a marginalized figure. Whereas the Pilgrim is a self-directed and

purposeful wanderer within their own constructs, the Vagabond wanders without purpose. Crazy

Lady as a Vagabond has absence of purpose, her travel is contingent upon the actions of others,

and she does not migrate across the city independently. The historical image of the Vagabond as

the masterless man and a threat (Slack, 1990) is inverted for Crazy Lady; she threatens no one

but inhabits a world that threatens her.

It is survival mode in terms of morality and the social milieu Crazy Lady traverses is

dangerous, unresponsive, and socially deviant. Within this deviance she is a passive onlooker.

She has been uprooted, a condition of being that determines her relationship to space/travel, and

she has a limited horizon of safe and enclosed spaces that include her bedroom, bathtub, and her

mother’s car. Together within safe places is the presence of significant others: grandfather,

boyfriend, friends, and adults within “the great, big boxed room” at school. Looking beyond the

contact of significant others with whom she feels safe, Crazy Lady’s relationship with others is

typically one of avoidance. She cites “dark places” where she feels unsafe; her sense of fear is

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contextual and grounded in the rootless, anarchic, and permeable boundary nature of her home

life and immediate social contacts.

A brief semiotic examination of her photos bears out the above. Unsafe can be obvious

from the guns and knives, to her feelings about herself where in her home her bed seems one of

the only safe places. Her pictures are sparse but vivid and alarming. The fear of others related to

spaces in which she travels are certainly not what society intended. Subverting space such as

done by drug dealers is the disguise of ‘la perruque’ at its most obvious and illegal use of that

area (deCerteau 1988 p25).

Crazy Lady has no involvement in political life and morality is contingent upon what is

required for her to survive. The metaphors of identity (Baumann, 1996), the ways youth

construct them, the locations of this construction, and the influence of place and space (Lefebvre,

1974) on this process is through the interaction of self-directed choice and the shaping, or denial,

of those choices by the immediate social reference points that mediate their relationship with the

world.

5.3.6 Fashionista – Good Girl

As a developmental metaphor the Flâneur /Shopper, is grounded within the modernism of

a capitalist economy, the Shopper exemplifies in its most extreme form the anomie of a single

point of engagement with society: to have and to hold. In terms of political life of the citizen-

consumer, the disinterested opportunist characterization places the Shopper at one extreme of

altruistic social engagement with the Citizen at the other. Good Girl has negotiated her metaphor

of identity (Baumann, 1996) from Flâneur and the le Sportif dimension of a basketball player.

As a Shopper her identity is contingent upon her social/parental constructs. Within this metaphor

there is the question regarding to what extent Shopper is a way of defining self or of interacting

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within the world; Good Girl’s career intentions lead her to the shopping mall, fashion boutiques,

and publications as her reference points.

The goal to consume is not her purpose; instead it is to influence patterns of consumption

through a Fashionista identity as a sub-category of Flâneur . Her relationship to time is centered

on shops and contingent on career intentions, familial pattern of engagement, and relationship

with others. She appears to spend time with her mother and her mother’s friends, and the mall is

the place and space where these encounters occur, however, as she matures these social patterns

are likely to change.

A close examination of her photos using semiotics in her album shows her computer and

phone for communication, perhaps looking up more ideas online. Her magazines are a symbol of

her fashion intent, yet the basketball court is still a favourite and she is good at sports, giving her

a double advantage in sport clothing.

The mall provides a safe place for a group Flâneur heterotopia (Foucault, 1997b), where

social capital (Putman, 2000) is accrued rather than physical goods. Even though Shopper as a

metaphor of identity (Baumann, 1996) becomes almost a pejorative; shopping as satiety and

distraction without reflection or coherence, as a definition of its morality this does not appear to

be Good Girl’s life purpose. There is no evidence of her being insecure or anxious, or that

products define her identity in terms of her relationship with self, however, her self-definition as

a basketball player is partly contingent upon the clothes and accoutrements of the sport. Good

Girl exhibits many of the identity metaphor components of the Shopper but not all,

demonstrating both the reductionist nature of this metaphor and the complexity of the participant

subject.

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5.3.3 Player and Sportif– Queen
As already established, Queen is the quintessential Player. The additional category of le

Sportif associated with this identity according to Baumann’s typology (1996) is less in evidence

and can be seen as a sub-identity of Player as Shopper is to Flâneur (Good Girl 5.3.6). Queen’s

entire persona is devoted to gaming, whether the primary game of pushing the boundaries of

skateboarding prowess or ‘playing with’ law enforcement agencies. One game is embedded

within the other and the corollary is a drive to win in all circumstances. Even in the classroom as

the site of the research the game goes on, it is continuous, universal, and counter-authority.

Travel is the characteristic of the game and the Player; we have seen how Queen’s urban

maps and photoscapes demonstrate a whole Calgary footprint using a range of transport modes,

he is knowledgeable about the venues of gaming and the spaces he can appropriate or wrest from

other social groups as a temporary gaming field (Lefebvre, 1974). Queen’s relationship with

home, however, is tenuous and in this he is not typical given his history of foster placements.

Home as a place of safety and where the game can continue in some form is a mediated

construct.

A brief look at the semiotics of his photos includes places to play as photos, a wry sense

of humour and of course venues that he has travelled. Like the tourist these venues are trophies,

but unlike the other youth, they are game winning trophies rather than memorabilia as such. In

comparison to Nameless, the trophies are rather those of a tourist, though in Queen’s case they

were achieved through a game rather than shopping around.

In terms of relationship with others all individuals are deemed Players in one form or

another, whether bystanders in a mall (an audience), police officers, or the research team. The

winners/losers balance is a contextualized concept; “kids and cops” are people to avoid and

therefore losers. Fellow gamesters, such as Wall of Snow, are seen as winners, less because of

100
individual prowess, and more because of their comradeship through the sport. The game is the

defining tool for all social groups with whom he interacts and the winners/losers category can be

extended to those whom Queen’s skill thrills and those it appals; there is little space between.

For the Player the concept of relationship to self is one of rational self-interest; for Queen

it is influenced by his sense of betrayal and mistrust generated by early childhood experiences.

This behaviour has reinforced the sense of being ‘the devil’s child’ with elements of the outsider

(Vagabond), but it is mitigated by inclusion within the body politic of the gaming fraternity; first

as fellow skateboarders and then the friends and comrades acquired through the social capital of

gaming prowess as a skateboarder and baiter of police.

Life is a game and the value of winning is a temporary moral purpose with indicators of

morality and political life. We can conjecture that as Queen matures the form of the game as

skateboarding will be replaced by other social games played out on the interface boundary

between and with alternative social structures.

5.3.7 Citizen – Captain Crack

While it can be argued that the Shopper is a modernist response to the rise of the market

place, and thus to the process of identity construction, Citizen seen as simultaneous engagement

in multiple theatres can be considered to be postmodern. Captain Crack has constructed a world

view that acknowledges complexity and internal coherence, multiple perspectives, and the

rationale for engagement. The key to the Citizen metaphor is attachment to time and space/travel,

both are utilized rather than squandered, are arenas where the subject exerts some control.

Opinions are forged by personal and group experience rather than the false consciousness

of an alienated rhetoric; Captain Crack is well-informed about bigotry and critical of differential

life outcomes; “as far as equality goes, I have not seen one sight of it”. The photoscapes offer a

semiotic of space and the purpose it serves within Captain Crack’s own identity. His reference to

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stereotyping, “people define you by what kind of car you drive”, is an oblique reference to the

infinite diversity of postmodern society, and a rejection of the externalization of economic

pressures whose identity constructs are imposed upon individuals in light of their ethnicity

and/or social group membership. References in the photo album are only one source of

information in the album. His use of imagery does not include any people, but consists of places

of interaction. Mental imagery, such as ‘Jedi’ fighting in the spaces, are included in his captions,

giving an overall picture of his conceptualization of space with meaning. The subverting of such

spaces for the uses of the ‘jedi’ to philosophize or argue their points is in effect an illustration of

deCerteau’s (1988) discussion regarding a ‘science of singularity’ as people relate space and time

to what zones of freedom they can in an institution of learning (deCerteau 1988, ix).

Captain Crack’s relationship to self as articulating the self through discourse and this

identity may be formative; while we have no direct evidence from Captain Crack of direct

engagement in political life, we can presume this will occur at a later stage in his career.

5.4 Summary
Given the data analysis, it is necessary at this point to summarize the metaphors in

relation to the youth, detailing some of the perceived reasons for their decisions. The Pilgrim

originated as external travel into a place where one could create oneself within a world made

unfamiliar. The Protestants according to Baumann (1996) enabled this creation without travel by

denying the familiar, rejecting the familiar in favor of the world made into a desert where

identity could be changed and change its surroundings. By so doing they made each person

responsible for the pilgrimage and the changing of the identity thereof. With every individual

now responsible for their own actions, rather than free the identity conceptualization, the

resulting plethora of choices increased the importance of coaches and other teachers of religion,

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increasing the role of the church in the life of the individual. On entering the modern world the

Pilgrim found that building an identity was less difficult than maintaining the identity itself.

(Baumann 1996) In youth culture surrounded by adult rules and mores, music offers a way to

search for meaning while doing something approved by society.

The Flâneur or stroller is a successor to the Pilgrim of old (Baumann 1996). In the classic

sense, the Flâneur is one who strolls about the streets or malls of a city and is seen as well as

watching others. Strollers were there to have fun; they didn't view life seriously as does the Pil-

grim (Baumann 1996) who, instead, exists as if in a moving picture show while watching the

very show strolled through. Eventually Flâneurs exchanged the street malls for shopping malls,

and became more distinct as our modern 'shopper'. The fashion industry first found the Flâneur

as more than just a passerby, but a potential client. Following this other merchandisers began to

use the stroller as their advertisement and customer, molding the stroller into what is now the

post-modern Shopper. With the advent of TV, computers and the internet, the stroller/Flâneur

has found that they are more in control of their environment than ever before, essentially becom-

ing invisible while directing the 'moving picture show' as mentioned previously.

The Tourist has the right to tour. This essential acquisition of authority (Coleman 1990)

allows the individual the safe space and place as long as they have a home to return to and from

the modern era onward, the money to spend on souvenirs, temporary accommodation, etc. Tak-

ing the place of the Pilgrim the Tourist avails themselves of increased mobility and travel meth-

ods to move among other spaces and places, eventually collecting the results of their travels in

various places of home and office (Benjamin 2002). In seeking experience and memorabilia the

Tourist is significantly different from the other metaphors as this style of travel is to go to places

rather than move because of an event (Baumann 1996). Despite once being of the 'other' in for-

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mer times, and thus possibly linked with the Vagabond the Tourist has now become a welcome

guest and the subject of much advertisement on a commercial basis. This successor to the Pil-

grim has acquired existence through commerce and social capital among the neighbors.

In a fast moving and changing world, it is important to maintain the integrity of ones'

identity (Baumann 1996). The Player uses the 'game' as a means of doing this through the lack of

importance ascribed to games. Where the Pilgrim treated the world with all seriousness, the

Player is the opposite. One cannot be hurt if life is 'just a game' and it is important that others un-

derstand this as part of the 'rules'. Once stated, the game can then be played with all the ruthless -

ness that the individual desires as 'winning and losing' are the important part and once the game

is over there are no hard feelings. Similar to Lofland's "Urbane Hero" the Player maintains a cool

and aloof demeanor, never losing the ability to handle the ever changing world with swift deci-

sive and correct moves.

Of all the metaphors that inherit the place of the Pilgrim only the Vagabond has a serious

view of living day to day. Marginalized and seen as homeless as well as threatening (Baumann

1996) this individual can count on no one to help them. Their existence is unsafe and their occu-

pation is survival. Beginning in modernity the vagabond moved from place to place as dispos-

sessed or itinerant worker, under the control of no one and thus threatening to everyone. The in-

dividual never knows the future, cannot plan for contingencies other than to move on. The

Vagabond is the 'other' and all of society has limited patience for this person.

Despite the Citizen of the Post-Modern world being less able to act in concert (Baumann

1996) the very interest evinced in the surroundings they are in compel them to occasional action.

With the boundaries of their lives threatened by 'others' and limits imposed on their ability to live

as well as enjoy life, one can find criticism of and resistance to the powers that are blamed for

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this inconvenience. Social capital (Coleman 1990) then becomes the attention of the public and

the resources needed to enact some kind of change. As many people are found who work against

change as those who work for change, with imagination limited by praxis. Though not seen by

Baumann as a successor to the Pilgrim the very necessity of protecting the other metaphors from

the outside world necessitates this new definition as Citizen. In relation to other metaphors the

Citizen takes the world more seriously, and may be a Pilgrim seeking political changes.

The definition of other metaphors in an ongoing classification leading from Baumann's

(1996) work can best be made using extensions of the metaphors already created in the context

of the development of social capital in a fast paced world. The first of these is the person who be-

lieves in the safety of games and combines this with the mercantile behaviour of the Shopper or

postmodern Flâneur. This 'Sportif' thus acquires social capital (Coleman 1990) as an 'expert' on

the sport that they play as well as on the fashion displayed in conjunction with the sport. Hetero-

topias of 'the game' as well as the 'shopping trip' and 'discussion of rules' can be created whether

in person or using social media such as computers, cell phones, etc., defined again as an rela-

tively risk-free enjoyment-seeking endeavour.

The final metaphor developed through examination of youth is that of 'Fashionista'. This

would seem to stem from the Flâneur /Shopper at first, but is actually a more serious acquisition

of Social Capital (Coleman 1990). A Fashionista is one who has decided to enter the fashion

world using the entry point of magazines and advertising. By becoming expert on the various

fashions, makeup and other paraphernalia, the person can reasonably expect to become a mem-

ber of the mercantile community. Modeling, hairdressing, product demonstration and other entry

points then make the dream into more of a reality. Heterotopic behaviour is still extant with nu-

merous discussion groups and other behaviours similar to the Shopper.

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 A research exercise of this scope presents problems in interpretation. The case study

which holds the data (Simons, 2009) as well as Wolcott’s (1994) model for data interpretation as

the written, visual, and spoken word with the hermeneutic dimension of participants making

sense of their identity constructions and relationship to the world through space and activity,

taken altogether, present extreme complexity. Any attempt to apply a reductionist strategy to the

complexity results in distortion, I have endeavoured to tread a cautious path in seeking the best

fit between the metaphors as provided by Baumann (1996) and myself in collaboration with Dr.

Hébert, focusing upon those instances where a lack of fit or migrating identities shed new evid-

ence on identity formation among adolescents. The evidence base was far more extensive than

related within the confines of this dissertation; choices had to be made and were informed by the

richness of data relating to individual participants who could be modelled as exemplars. Bau-

mann’s (1996) initial five categories have been extended to include Fashionista and Citizen,

while additional identities that are composites and extensions of Baumann’s initial typology such

as Flâneur /Shopper emerge from the findings.

5.5 Thesis Conclusion

The final question for me as researcher is: “What purpose does this research serve?” As

an educator, I am aware of the inherent redundancy of school grades and evaluations in

estimating the real-world potential of youth. Who we think we are pre-figures our success in life.

By superimposing a template of metaphors of identity (Baumann, 1996) upon students, we are

offered the opportunity of gaining insight into their aspirations for school, their future lives and

careers. As the research has shown, however, metaphors of identity are only metaphors and some

constrain our perceptions; how much more acceptable is the two widespread metaphors, that of

Citizen than that of Shopper?

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 As adolescent identities are rarely fixed, they can be reinforced by adult approbation or

opposition, for example, the Vagabond and Player receive differing responses. Identity is

evolutionary and marks time with cognitive and physiological change (Jaffe, 1998), but it is also

mediated by the process of interaction and the sites of that interaction. Space becomes a

contended arena between adults and adolescents and between different identities in others and

within the self (Lefebvre, 1974). The solitary Pilgrim is a questing soul whereas a heterotopia of

Flâneurs becomes reconstructed as a gang of voyeuristic troublemakers (Foucault, 1997b).

Thus, metaphors of identity and the ways they are spatially constructed over time is a

process common to all, even though as adults we recognize that these labels were not assigned to

us in our youth. Since they were delineated by Baumann (1996) they have assumed a reality of

their own and become reified by observation. In the data we find a Tourist (Nameless) who tours

not to find exotic places but to confirm her sense of the banality of where she is now; a Shopper

(Good Girl) who is also a Flâneur and le Sportif but only a Shopper by virtue of frequenting

malls; and a Vagabond (Crazy Lady) who poses no threat to others but is herself the one who is

threatened.

Metaphors are partial; they are not reality, only a thumbnail sketch. They are not fixed

and the complexity of postmodern society lends itself as an arena within which new identities

can be written. For adolescents trying on personas and identities as if in a fashion or sports

boutique is a way of developing a relationship with the world and interacting with each other and

adults in preparation for full engagement. Just as tried and discarded metaphors leave a residue,

so do past constructions of childhood retain a shadow: the Shopper is denigrated as a child but

welcomed as a fully functioning adult; whole education programs are devoted to developing

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Citizens; to be a Tourist is to engage in selective and envied leisure, but the Vagabond retains the

status of a worldly pejorative not shared with the Pilgrim.

The process of identity formulation, as guidance for educators, is a key facet of

maturation often overlooked in monitoring physiological changes and term grades. Therefore, it

is a fruitful area for further research and a means by which educators can recognize the

complexities of maturation, development, and learning within and beyond the school context.

The assumption of differing learning styles (Honey & Mumford, 1986) has offered a cognitive

structure of equally valued difference; metaphors of identity offer the opportunity for a

professionally reflexive acceptance of the personality and effective dimensions.

This study also brings forth a qualitative analysis in terms of theoretical perspectives such

as those of de Certeau (1988). In the observation and discourse of a number of young people can

be seen myriad ways in which their desires and search for identity give alternate meanings to

space and place. From the expectations of our Tourist, the Trans-Canada highway is a venue of

safety whereas a simple stairwell alarms our vagabond (accompanying drug dealers do that).

Those ‘niches’ allowed by school and society (i.e., band room) are occupied by a pilgrim and

later turned to his use as he ‘cuts an album’ to sell through local stores, becoming a use of the

disguise of ‘la perruque’ (de Certeau, 1988 p25), the worker using company time and space for

his own pursuits. In this case educational time and space are used for the eventual creation of an

album. Nonetheless, this subverting usage may be known to the educators involved, especially as

the principal ‘hired’ him to provide music for school events. Such school-based collaborations

merit further examination in terms of possible, positive, creative long term educational effects.

Finally, identity-subject relationships with space are also linked to time, others, and the

self. How individuals and groups carve out space and construct heterotopias are political acts.

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Power resides with the adult; it is transferred to the young person grudgingly and contested.

Response to place and to space is part of that ongoing process of negotiation that ultimately

defines the self, even where, as with Nameless, this is an oppositional self-definition. A sample

chart of the metaphors above (such as Table 4.1 at the beginning of this chapter) produces a

hypothetical series of relationships in time and space. As one of the points of the qualitative

paradigm is to produce such hypotheses it is included for reference. Comparison of the

metaphors on the table and the participants listed above is congruous with the use of the

extended metaphor rather than the original philosophical models of Baumann. This is an

innovative and potentially fruitful research site that must be extended, developed, and

interrogated by others. Such research may help to provide more clarity on my proposals, that

educators must seek more innovative ways to engage with young people. In this way, we

educators can hope to deliver learning experiences that are more innovative and specific to the

needs of each youth, understanding the metaphors of identity as young people shift through them

and develop new ones in order to find their place in the world.

109
 Appendix A:

Permission to Use the Data for my Master’s Thesis

110
 Appendix B:

University of Calgary Ethical Approval

111
Appendix C:

Consent Form

112
 Appendix D:

Socio Demographic Form

113
 Appendix E:

Photoscape Planning Booklet

114
 Appendix F:

Photoscape Reporting Booklet

115
 Appendix G:

Protocol for Urban Mapping

116
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