Jovencivic: (re)framing youth citizenship through memories and imaginaries of the Olympic Games (London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016)

This thesis seeks to reconceptualise youth citizenship through an examination of the memories and imaginaries of young people from two different global settings in relation to a media event: The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. By doing so, it proposes a new concept and framework – Jovencivic – based on the reworking and extension of three important analytical and theoretical strands: the role of the media in young people’s lives, memories and imaginations, and the significance of the North-South divide that needs to be problematised (McFarlane, 2006, , 2020). As a result, three questions are posed in order to understand the impact of these areas on youth citizenship. First, to what extent do global media events like the Olympics play a critical role in young people’s perceptions and performances of national, transnational, or transcultural identity? Second, how do the discursive memories and imaginaries of young citizens from distinctive North-South global settings contribute to the intangible legacies of the Olympics? Finally, what is the role of such memories and imaginaries as critical tools for youth engagement with society and the world? To answer these questions, the thesis examined the recollections and expectations of 209 young inhabitants from London and Rio de Janeiro in relation to the Games. Focus groups, individual interviews, and mind map exercises were employed to collect data from the participants, while semiotic and discourse analysis were the modes of analysis used throughout the research. As a half-Portuguese and half-English word, Jovencivic offers a conceptual view of young people as different but connected in the globalised and mediatised world of the twenty-first century. It challenges dichotomised views of youth by proposing, instead, that youth citizenship is best envisioned and contemplated in a media landscape at the intersections between local/national/global and memory/imagination.