In this paper, I report on preliminary findings arising from a more extensive doctoral project on Australia's regional youth exodus. One aim of this project is to stress the political moment lost in technical socio-demographic accounts of youth migration. Here, I examine the ‘taken for granted’ assumptions that frame conversations about regional youth migration, as well as the exclusionary limits of such discourse. In my review of popular media, I focus on the way young people are constructed by others (journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, and parents), and on how young people are positioned in other people's visions of their regional home towns. I discuss two narratives that recur in regional (Tasmanian) newspapers: support for strategies to keep young people at home and a preoccupation with the ‘best and brightest’ young people. I also discuss the emergence of these narratives in national forums.
History
Publication title
Journal of Rural Studies
Volume
18
Pagination
209-212
ISSN
0743-0167
Department/School
School of Social Sciences
Publisher
Pergamon
Place of publication
Oxford, United Kingdom
Rights statement
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