Grounded Youth
Building spatial futures in declining European regions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.6588Keywords:
Young people, declining regions, vulnerabilities, spatial justice, opportunity structuresAbstract
Across Europe, economically and demographically declining regions offer limited educational and occupational opportunities for young people. These opportunities are often restricted further for those in vulnerable life situations, as vulnerabilities are connected to and impacted by limited resources and capacities. While many young Europeans move from declining to more thriving regions in search of better educational and labour market opportunities, some choose—or are forced by their circumstances—to stay. We focus on this latter group of “grounded” youth, their agency, opportunities, and capabilities to build futures in declining regions across Europe. Based on socio-economic, demographic, and educational data from the statistical office of the European Union, we selected Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Halle (Saale) (Germany), Kainuu (Finland), and Tâmega e Sousa (Portugal) for a comparative analysis.
This article investigates the reasons and reasonings behind young people’s immobility. We use narrative biographical interviews with young adults (age 18–30; N=35) living in declining European regions to examine how young Europeans construct their life courses in the context of limited opportunity structures, educational spaces, and social circumstances. The interviews were conducted in 2024. We use a spatial justice approach to address the effects of limited opportunity structures paired with intersecting vulnerabilities on young people’s agency, perceptions of space, and strategies to adapt. The results show that staying in declining regions is not a homogeneous condition, with localised social relationships helping to explain how diverse approaches of staying grounded—firmly, passively, conditionally—are enabled and sustained.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Johannes Ludwig Löffler, Jenni Tikkanen, Siyka Kovacheva, Hélder Ferraz
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