Keating, Avril; Benchekroun, Rachel; Whewall, Sam; Cameron, Claire; (2024) Growing up in English coastal towns: Intergenerational differences in youth opportunities and experiences. Presented at: Moving Out and Moving on in the Post-war Decades: Data & Methods for Researching Young People’s Lives, Manchester, UK.

Slideshow UoM workshop - 'Moving out and moving on' - May 2024.pptx - Supplemental Material Download (11MB)

Abstract

This work in progress paper considers how youth opportunities and experiences have changed over time in English coastal communities. Once thriving centres associated with industries such as tourism, fishing and manufacturing, coastal communities have experienced stark economic decline, where young people today face low-wage and insecure employment, and low educational attainment and skills. Against this backdrop, we consider how youth opportunities and experiences of different generations have been shaped by the changing economic, educational and built environment of coastal towns. To do so, we draw on qualitative data from 69 residents (39 aged 12-26 and 30 aged 60-80) in two coastal towns – Grimsby and Cleethorpes. We used arts-based and participatory methods alongside interviews and focus groups. Combined, these data enable us to compare youth experiences of work, education, leisure opportunities, and transitions to early adulthood. This intergenerational lens emphasises that although some youth opportunities have expanded over time (e.g. regarding education), young people today face challenges that did not exist in these towns in earlier decades, particularly in relation to precarious work, as well as a sense of marginalisation contemporary youth feel about the economic, geographic and built environment of their coastal towns.

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