Speculation is Not Theoretical: The Work of YPAR Moving Forward

Nothing brought me more joy during my years as the coordinator of the UCLA Council of Youth Research than those moments when, after politely listening to my explanation of some theoretical concept that scholars have painstakingly defined and debated across years in the academy, the students would laugh and respond with some variation of, “Yeah, we get it. We know what they’re saying—they just use fancy language to say it.” Hegemony, social capital— whatever the concept, the youth could always tap into their own identities and experiences to understand that, stripped of all jargon, they already viscerally grasped these realities—the literature just provided some new vocabulary.