Cycles of insecurities: Understanding the everyday politics of young Londoners: Fid-Bau Portal

Cycles of insecurities: Understanding the everyday politics of young Londoners

O'Loughlin, Ben / Sloam, James

Abstract The concept of everyday insecurity was developed to explain people's lived experiences in the wake of 9/11 and 7/7 and the perceived threat of terrorism. This article develops the concept to investigate the everyday insecurities experienced by young Londoners in the wake of the financial crisis and climate crisis. We employ innovative youth-centred methods to explore the issues that shape the everyday lives of young people in the UK capital. Through narrative analysis we represent the voices of young Londoners, identifying the role of identity, emotion, the attribution of responsibility and sense of agency in their discussions. We find young Londoners' narratives are dominated by “cycles of insecurity”: interconnected problems of housing, crime and so on, from which some feel it is almost impossible to escape. This helps explain why lack of efficacy and a sense of agency is a particular problem for younger generations. These experiences are more relevant than ever in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the urgent need to integrate youth voice into Covid-recovery, to allow cities to generate a more sustainable public policy.

Highlights • Many young people in cities suffer from cycles of insecurity: interconnected problems from which it seems like there is no escape. • Young people have faced waves of crisis: the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. • The voices of young people are often absent from public policy, and so their preferences are rarely understood by policy-makers. • City authorities need to understand the challenges facing young people, to generate effective and sustainable public policy.