Situating young people's experiences of risk and identity

Within late modernity, a sense of 'risk' and increased individualisation ar e theoretically much discussed and debated, especially ideas surrounding ri sk, risky behaviour and its impact upon identity construction. Drawing upon data from a recent Department of the Environment funded project exploring risk and risk management in young people's fives, this article moves beyond theory and official discourses of 'risk', in order to demonstrate the impo rtance of young people's lay accounts or 'situated vocabularies' of risk an d everyday risk-taking behaviour. Furthermore, fieldwork has also highlight ed the important link between risk and identity, especially, gendered ident ity construction. This will be discussed in terms of socially perceived ris ky identities, such us being a 'macho risk taker' or a young (single) mothe r and the importance of gendered risk discourses within the lives of these young people. This in rum raises issues of risk governance. As we begin to unpack the complexity that surrounds risk discourses and risky identities i t becomes extremely difficult to understand or isolate specific areas of ri sk without situating them within young people's multidimensional lives, tha t is, the social, ideological and economic milieux within which they live a nd make sense of the world.