Project to assess rail line youth work (2017–2018)

The completion of the Ring Rail Line has improved young people’s opportunities to travel around and congregate, which affects the local and geographical conditions that define youth culture. The fact it is easier to travel around means shorter distances and new ways of using the urban space. Therefore, the geography of youth culture also creates cultural, social and geographical conditions for youth culture within which it functions. On the one hand, improved transport possibilities make it easier for young people to get to certain public spaces which are interesting from a youth culture perspective and on the other, they mean that the actual modes of transport become spaces for young people.

As an approach, rail line youth work aims to meet the changed conditions of youth work and to take youth work to the places where young people hang out: trains and meeting places located along the railway line. The research project studies the approach in a new youth cultural landscape and evaluates the youth work impact of the methods from the perspective of the young people, other transport users and cooperation partners. What benefits (benefits of positive encounters in rail line youth work, young people directed to various activities, impact on safety, financial impacts, etc.) can be achieved with rail line youth work? What kinds of young people are encountered in rail track youth work, and what are the reasons that make young people come to these places? In what way do the improved transport possibilities affect Vantaa’s youth cultural landscape? How does the change impact the cultural, social and geographical conditions of youth work?

The project manager is Tomi Kiilakoski, Ph.D., and the project researcher in Karla Malm, M.Soc.Sc.. The project uses qualitative methods based on multi-sited ethnography.