The 24th Annual Conference of Youth Studies will be held in Helsinki on 3–4 December 2026. The theme of the conference is “The Diverse Everyday Lives of Young People”.
Young people live their everyday lives in socially, culturally, geographically, and technologically diverse environments. Family background, individual factors, and societal structures shape how everyday life during youth is constructed and what kinds of foundations it provides for the transition to adulthood. The everyday lives of young people are also embedded in their historical context: they both respond to and influence the societal and cultural phenomena characteristic of their time. In recent years, this has become evident in connection with various global tensions, the ecological crisis, and the social, economic, and health-related challenges encountered by young people along their life courses. The changing conditions of youth have also highlighted the wide range of competencies required for everyday well-being and functioning daily life. The importance of such everyday skills is particularly emphasized during transitions related to independence and adulthood.
This year’s Annual Conference of Youth Studies invites all those interested in youth research to engage in discussion on the diversity of young people’s everyday lives and the various ways of approaching it. Everyday life will be examined from multidimensional and interdisciplinary perspectives, including questions such as: How do different environments—such as the home, school, work, leisure activities, and digital communities—structure young people’s everyday lives? What characterizes young people’s everyday interactions and contexts of action on various online platforms and beyond? How do regional differences manifest in the conditions and forms of everyday life? What kinds of challenges and dimensions of inequality emerge in young people’s daily lives, and how can these be addressed? Which everyday phenomena have remained overlooked in youth research? The aim of the discussion is to identify the dimensions and boundary conditions of young people’s everyday lives, and to open up new perspectives for supporting everyday well-being.
Keynote speakers
The keynote speakers at the Annual Conference of Youth Studies will be Professor Päivi Honkatukia (Tampere University, Youth Work and Youth Research) and Associate Professor Noora Pyyry (University of Helsinki, Department of Geosciences and Geography).
Schedule
The call for sessions will open in April, the call for papers in June, and registration in early September 2026.
Organizers
The Annual Conference of Youth Studies 2026 is jointly organized by the Finnish Youth Research Society and the University of Helsinki’s disciplines of home economics (Faculty of Educational Sciences) and sociology (Faculty of Social Sciences).
