’Det får mig til at føle mig hjemme’: Når unge flytter hjemmefra, og hvordan de skaber tilhørsforhold et nyt sted

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Youth is a life phase characterized by many transitions. Leaving home is one of the most crucial transitions in youth. Based on the concept of belonging, this article examines how young people develop a feeling of belonging to the place they are moving to when leaving home. The article examines the ways in which young people are constructing a feeling of belonging to a place through different social and material resources. The point of departure for the article is that belonging to a place is a performative act.
The article is based on a longitudinal interview study with 36 Danish young people between the age of 17 and 25, whom the authors have followed for 12 months during their transition from living with their parents to living on their own. In the interviews, it is examined which challenges young people encounter in this transition, and which strategies they apply to meet these challenges. The article shows how young people through their affective and ambiguous interactions with places, materialities and social relations produce feelings of belonging to the place they are moving to. In particular, it focuses on how the young people’s feelings of belonging to the childhood home affect the ways in which they actively create a relationship with a new place. The article nuances the notion of belonging by showing how young people's ways of connecting with a new place can be considered a performative act, which is largely connected to the experiences of attachment, or lack of attachment to the childhood home which they carry with them into adulthood.
Original languageDanish
Article number7
JournalPsyke & Logos
Volume41
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)119-141
Number of pages22
ISSN0107-1211
Publication statusPublished - 6 Aug 2020

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