Familial geopolitics and ontological security : intergenerational relations, migration and minority youth (in)securities in Scotland
Abstract
This paper discusses the family as a site of geopolitics. Bridging scholarship in feminist geopolitics, political psychology and sociology, we explore the psycho-social dynamics of family life and theorise the family as a multi-scalar, relational site of security. Original data collected with ethnic and religious minority youth in Scotland are presented alongside an analysis of how family relations, at interconnected scales, mitigate against and/or re-inscribe broad geopolitical narratives of security. We employ the concept of ontological security (OS) to analyse the role of the family, and the relationships within it, on shaping youth securities. We discuss (1) how family histories and intergenerational experience shape young people’s sense of security; (2) how young people negotiate and resist family norms and values that reproduce securitizing geopolitical narratives; and (3) how young people find security when family is absent or indeterminate. In each case, we analyse how geopolitics operates through family life. The paper makes two key contributions: first, we use original empirical data to theorise ethnic and religious minority youth securities; second, we show the value of OS as a conceptual tool for understanding psycho-social dimensions of familial geopolitics.
Citation
Botterill , K , Hopkins , P & Sanghera , G 2020 , ' Familial geopolitics and ontological security : intergenerational relations, migration and minority youth (in)securities in Scotland ' , Geopolitics , vol. 25 , no. 5 , pp. 1138-1163 . https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2018.1512098
Publication
Geopolitics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1465-0045Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2018.1512098
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