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Despite 'troubled lives' increasingly coming under the gaze of (powerful) others, our understanding of the issues at hand seems somewhat detached from the experiences of those subject to policy intervention. Due to the deficit model that presents 'problem families' as pathological, the voices of those that experience multiple disadvantages and severe material hardship are rarely heard, or, at worst, silenced. Within the context of hardening public attitudes that increasingly vilify the poor, understanding the connection between the personal and public is both timely and valuable. Drawing upon qualitative research, this paper seeks to listen to the voices of young people who currently reside within a 'troubled family'. Through an exploration of how young people perceive their biographies, their status as 'troubled' or troublesome', their relationships with significant others and their thoughts and feelings towards the future, we are able to recapture and reclaim contemporary depictions of 'troubled lives'. Uncovering such lived experiences can also act as a springboard through which to explore how young lives (are likely to) unfold when interpreted against the background of restricted opportunities and social censure.

This article draws on qualitative longitudinal data obtained over a five-year period with young mothers. What makes the approach described in this article unique is how it views teenage pregnancy and motherhood as fluid and dynamic, moving away from the static snapshots that often depict young mothers as struggling (or 'failing') at one moment in time, to a more nuanced account that reflects their journeys into motherhood and the changes that occur through time. Three main themes are explored. First, emphasis is placed on the acute awareness of stigmatisation and how the women in the study consequently felt pressure to 'prove' that they were different or set apart from the stereotypical teenage mother. Second, factors that either neutralise or exacerbate the experience of stigma are explored. Finally, it is argued that greater attention should be paid to the process of stigmatisation through the notion of a 'maternal career'. This framework allows for an appreciation of both the complexity of how lives unfold and of the many factors that can influence its direction.

This interdisciplinary collection charts the experiences of young people in places of spatial marginality around the world, dismantling the privileging of urban youth, urban locations and urban ways of life in youth studies and beyond. Expert authors investigate different dimensions of spatiality including citizenship, materiality and belonging, and develop new understandings of the complex relationships between place, history, politics and education. From Australia to India, Myanmar to Sweden, and the UK to Central America, international examples from both the Global South and North help to illuminate wider issues of intergenerational change, social mobility and identity. By exploring young lives beyond the city, this book establishes different ways of thinking from a position of spatial marginality