How Do Young People Perceive Risk? An Approach to Self-Expression Through Creative Intervention

Contemporary societies are dominated by the discourse of the risk which refers to potential threats associated to feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, and fear, introduced by modernization itself (Beck, Risk society. Towards a new modernity. Sage, 1992, p. 21) and instigated by the mass media. The concept of risk can, however, connote other dimensions. Austen (The social construction of risk by young people. Health, Risk & Society, 11(5), 451–470, 2009, p. 452) states that “now risk taking is much more diverse, not centred on survival but pleasure and the relief of boredom. In this sense risk taking is now regarded as fun, a way of coping with the increased instabilities and uncertainties of living at risk”. The author highlights that young people in the new millennium face a wider scope of uncertainties (being at risk) and choices (risk taking) on how to run their lives. On the one hand, they are regarded as autonomous and knowledgeable and, on the other, as dependent and passive (p. 452). Theoretical frameworks about risk have been influencing many discourses (economic, technological, political…) and social groups, an example being young people’s risk management (Cieslik & Pollock, Introduction: Studying young people in late modernity. In M. Cieslik & G. Pollock (Eds.), Young people in risk society: The restructuring of youth identities and transitions in late modernity. Routledge Revivals, 2002/2018). This chapter aims at carrying out a critical analysis of perceptions of risk associated to the negative dimension of fear and insecurity, which is widely accepted. It, thus, searches for elements that can give answers to the question how do young people perceive risk?, to determine appropriations anchored in the life of the Other, the young, as an example of a specific context. In terms of methodology, the chapter adopts a qualitative approach to research as action that places creative intervention (photography, graphic representation, writing) at the centre of empirical observation, as a form of expressing worldviews. The research sample includes a group of young people and is examined to understand how the concept of risk can suggest different appropriations and how artistic intervention can promote individuals’ awareness of their participant voices.