ORCID
- Mark Holton: 0000-0003-0267-3164
Abstract
This paper examines the contested geographies of young people's citizenship practices and performances in marine and coastal environments. This is important in developing original knowledge of how encounters with new and different coastal places, practices, people, morals and ethics can affect young people's citizenship practices and performances and how young people relate meaningfully with[in] coastal environments. Using a novel digital scrapbooking technique and qualitative interviews, conducted with 22 young adults aged 18–30 in Plymouth, UK, this paper examines how and why young people's everyday engagements and encounters with coastal environments can shape their understandings of environmental and social care. In examining the intersections of youth citizenship, coastal literacy and the geographies of encounter, the paper develops a new framework of ‘coastal citizenship’ that provides two contributions. First, in identifying coastal citizenship as a unique imbrication of terrestrial and marine citizenship that relies on the interdependencies of various actors, systems, policies and ways-of-knowing land–sea interactions. Second, this paper acknowledges the interplay between young citizens' interpretations of, and approaches towards, coastal management, education and engagement in ways that produce individual and collective interest, responsibility and care for marine spaces. This approach therefore advances discourses of young people as citizens ‘in becoming’ by examining how young people's active engagement with, and management/promotion of, coastal environmental care is articulated through their ‘everyday agency’. This is important in ensuring a broader range of young people's voices are able to shape decisions made at the local and national level.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2025-03-31
Publication Title
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
ISSN
0020-2754
Acceptance Date
2025-03-12
Deposit Date
2025-03-19
Additional Links
Keywords
coasts, difference, encounter, geography, ocean literacy, youth citizenship
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Holton, M. (2025) 'Encountering coasts: The contested geographies of young people's coastal citizenship[s]', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, . Available at: 10.1111/tran.70010
