Doing resistance – youth and changing theories of resistance

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate and analyze changing conceptions of resistance within youth research. Through a careful selection of influential and paradigmatic texts, we follow the development of the concept from the 1970s until today. In particular, we have focused on how the relation between power and resistance is described and portrayed in different theories and empirical studies. This article also takes up questions of social and cultural change, the limitations of social reproduction theories, and the conceptual possibilities of theorizing resistance in contemporary studies on youth, power, and resistance.