![]() ![]() ![]() Thus, the inclusion of place in identity development processes arises from the recognition that physical environments are not inert backdrops against which social life unfolds rather, it is in the transactions between people and their everyday socio-physical environments that identity is created.īridging the theory of possible selves and theories of place, I provide evidence to illustrate how place-based experiences, such as belonging, aversion, and entrapment, may be internalized and encoded into possible selves, thus producing emplaced future self-concept. Additional work on memory, emotion and narrative shows how rural youth identities are enacted in part through repeated contact and experiences with everyday places ( Leyshon, 2008 Leyshon & Bull, 2011). Psychogeographies of rural youth unearth the conscious and unconscious influences of physical environments on everyday affective responses to place, and the mutually constitutive relationship between sense of self and sense of place ( Matthew & Tucker, 2006). Human geographers have turned a critical eye to the varied role of place-experienced, remembered and imagined-in youth identity formation ( Reay & Lucey, 2000 Jones, 2005 Valentine, Sporton & Neilsen, 2009). A growing body of interdisciplinary work, including significant contributions from environmental psychology and human geography, points to the salience of place, or the meaningful physical environments of people's everyday lives, as active contributors to self-identity ( Dixon & Durrheim, 2000, 2004). Research on adolescent possible selves considers the influence of social context on future self-concept however, the potential role of physical environments in self-concept development has not been well examined. For adolescents, a foreshortened view of the future, or belief that “I might not be here tomorrow,” is associated with increased risky health behaviors ( Rothman, Bernstein & Strunin, 2010 Borowsky, Ireland & Resnick, 2009 Burton, Obeidallah & Allison, 1996) and lower educational investment ( Abedalu, 2007 Horstmanshof & Zimitat, 2007 Oyserman, Bybee & Terry, 2006), underscoring the importance of future self-concept as a focus of intervention and prevention efforts to promote healthy youth development. Future self-concepts, or possible selves, are self-relevant cognitions of enduring goals, aspirations, hopes, fears and threats that function as a framework and guide for individual identity development ( Markus & Nurius, 1986). Adolescence is a developmental period when future-thinking becomes increasingly salient. How young people conceptualize and cognitively represent their futures – as full of positive potential or constraints and negative possibilities-bears influence on their developmental trajectories. “There is no social environment that is not also a physical environment.” Ittelson, Proshansky, Rivlin & Winkle, 1974 Implications for practice and future research include place-making interventions and conceptualizing place beyond “neighborhood effects.” I suggest that for young people, visioning self in the future is inextricably bound with place place is an active contributor both in the present development of future self-concept and in enabling young people to envision different future possible places. Bridging these two lines of inquiry, I provide evidence to show how place-based experiences, such as belonging, aversion, and entrapment, may be internalized and encoded into possible selves, thus producing emplaced future self-concept. ![]() At the same time, a growing body of work spanning multiple disciplines points to the salience of place, or the meaningful physical environments of people's everyday lives, as an active contributor to self-identity. Although the theory of possible selves considers the role of social contexts in identity development, the potential influence of the physical environment is understudied. ![]() Identity research indicates that development of well elaborated cognitions about oneself in the future, or one's possible selves, is consequential for youths' developmental trajectories, influencing a range of social, health, and educational outcomes. ![]()
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