Resisting the Label

Jo Deakin is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Manchester University, UK. Her work explores the intersection of youth work, justice, and social policy, focusing on young people's responses to criminalization and stigma.Hilary Pilkington is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK, and Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. Her research explores youth cultural practices, political participation, and extremism.Zyab Ibañez is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Government and Public Policies (IGOP) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. With a PhD from the European University Institute and an MSc from the London School of Economics, his research examines how institutional frameworks influence public policy implementation in employment, working- time, and migration.Aet Annist is Associate Professor at the Department of Ethnology and UNESCO Chair in the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her research examines social fragmentation, community resilience, and processes of dispossession in neoliberal contexts.

• Introduction: Reflections on young people’s responses to negative everyday representations of themselves 1. At the ‘risky’ end of things: labelling, self-concept and the role of supportive relationships in young lives 2. Not apologising for a community: young people’s responses to misrecognition and stigma 3. When visibility becomes political: visibility and stigmatisation of young people 4. Youth in conflict: space and subculture 5. Heading for a better world: micropolitical activism of young people seeking social change 6. ‘Pro-moral order’ activism: a study of diversity within youth communities of struggle in St Petersburg