Young People and the Cultural Politics of Paradise

Abstract

In contemporary society, youth are depicted as having little political agency in relation to place. In popular media, youthful immaturity is celebrated, sensationalized by tabloids, and re-spun as cultural narrative. Moral panics are reproduced in response to the glorification of youth deviance, and these often become embedded in the cultural fabric of places. In a world regulated by adults and run to benefit “mature” populations, young people occupy seemingly liminal and powerless positions. Yet, youth are indeed political actors (Skelton 2010), engaged in shaping cultural imaginaries. They are formally and informally involved in the making and remaking of places. In tourism destinations defined by paradisal “traces” (see Anderson 2010), youth are cognizant of their role in producing cultures of resistance. This chapter presents research undertaken on Australia’s Gold Coast, a coastal paradise haunted by the tourist gaze. Through an in-depth analysis of young artists and cultural practitioners’ subjective experiences of “trace-making,” this chapter maps young people’s cultural politics through the lens of place. In doing so, it describes how young people are working to disrupt and transgress hegemonic markers of place. Finally, this chapter repositions young people as “trace-makers,” as ongoing participants in cultural politics, and as perceptive and imaginative shapers of places.