Urban Capital and Young People’s Mobilities in Urban Space

In this article, we analyse the skills and knowledge of young people using the urban space by introducing the concept of ‘urban capital’. We combine two theoretical approaches: the Chicago School-inspired approaches to young people’s street cultures and Bourdieu’s notion of capitals. Our research data derives from the qualitative longitudinal Youth in Time research project. The sub-data utilized consist of 32 interactive map workshops conducted with 74 secondary school students in the ninth grade (15- to 16-year-olds) living in or near three urban localities in different parts of Finland. In our analysis, we focus on how young people utilize urban space by using their cultural and social capital. We explore how they gradually build their knowledge about local neighbourhoods and how their mobilities develop. Our results show that young people gain urban capital socially, by interacting and sharing stories about how to use urban spaces, how to get around and which places are safe and fun or to be avoided.