An untimely future for youth studies?

Peter Kelly is interested in the ways in which young people are made knowable, and governable, in relation to a range of problems that emerge in the 21st century. He illustrates where some of these trends are heading in an examination of how discourses of adolescent brain development make a powerful appearance in discussions about young people's sexuality, education, use of alcohol and drugs and their mental health. Drawing on the work of Foucault and Bauman, he questions whether the future of youth studies can be 'untimely' in the sense that it asks questions that trouble or unsettle the claims of these sorts of discourses and the various ways in which young people are made known.