Nuorten tilallisten mielikuvien lähteillä

Abstract

World views are dynamic spatial conceptions that each person has their own version of. On one hand,
they are conditioned by living environments, life situations and social positions. People from certain regions,
countries, cities and neighborhoods tend to share many aspects in their world views, and those
with similar social and cultural backgrounds may see the world in particular ways. Yet, concurrently, world
views are subjectively established. Each person is actively involved in the processes of spatial socialization
through which their spatial imagination and understandings develop and take new directions. Hence,
two people living in the same residential area, with a similar background and social positions, have also
differing dimensions regarding the worlds in which they live, to a smaller or larger extent. Engaging with
these dynamic processes of spatial socialization and world view development, this article focuses on the
sources of some Finnish young people’s spatial conceptions, with whom we have worked in our ongoing
research. By employing a theoretical perspective that notices their worlds as topographically conditioned
and topologically practiced, we seek for territorial as well as relational spatial dimensions from the worlds
in which they find themselves living.