Browsing by Author "Jansson, Maria-Patricia"

This paper focuses on youth in transition by meeting youth making choices regarding their further education as well as whether they stay in or move out of their local community. First, regarding the choices concerning work and education made by the youth, this study aims to explore the growing understanding of the strengths and talents that youth have in light of prominent theories in positive psychology. Second, in terms of the mobility and immobility of the youth, this study explores the concept of “capability to stay” and its relationship with aspirations of youth through the lens of the “aspiration–capability framework”. During the research, I collaborated with a practitioner working for an action-research organization in the Netherlands. The data used in this study is collected through recordings of eight conversations between the collaborator and the youth participating in a program facilitated by the organization. The recordings form a body of naturally occurring data, and narrative analysis was used to examine the data. The analysis supported the need to consider (im)mobility as one process and demonstrated the usefulness of the aspiration-capability framework as an instrument in migration research. Further, the narratives of the youth shed light on how the development of their strengths and talents were very closely tied. The three pillars of positive psychology – experience, individual traits, and institutions –were used to explore the ways in which meaning was given to the development of talents and strengths by youth in their narratives. This paper concludes with a discussion on the concept of good life in relation to the youth and their capacity to stay, and a call to better understand the role community and institution can play in supporting youth as they navigate their educational pathways.