This volume sets out to foreground the issues of youth identity in the context of current sociolinguistic and discourse research on identity construction. Based on detailed empirical analyses, the twelve chapters offer examinations of how youth identities from late childhood up to early twenties are locally constructed in text and talk. The settings and types of social organization investigated range from private letters to graffiti, from peer group talk to video clips, from schoolyard to prison. Comparably, a wide range of languages is brought into focus, including Danish, German, Greek, Japanese, and Turkish. Drawing on various discourse analytic paradigms (e.g. Critical Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis), the contributions examine and question notions with currency in the field, such as young people's linguistic creativity and resistance to mainstream norms. At the same time, they demonstrate the embeddedness of constructions of youth identities in local activities and communities of practice where they interact with other social identities and factors, in particular gender and ethnicity. Table of contentsDiscourse constructions of youth identities: Introduction Jannis K. Androutsopoulos and Alexandra Georgakopoulou 1–25 I. Peer group identities Linguistic variation and the construction of social identity in a German-Turkish setting: A case study of an immigrant youth group in Mannheim, Germany Werner Kallmeyer and Inken Keim 29–46 Nicknames and teasing: A case study of a linguistically and culturally mixed peer-group Vasiliki Lytra 47–73 Looking back when looking ahead: On adolescents’ identity management in narrative practices Alexandra Georgakopoulou 75–91 It’s not that I really care about him personally you know: The construction of gender identity in London teenage talk Anna-Brita Stenström 93–117 II. Recasting literacy practices Emotion and youth identities in personal letter writing: An analysis of pictorial signs and unconventional punctuation Kuniyoshi Kataoka 121–149 Spelling rebellion Mark Sebba 151–172 ‘Nike Trainers, My One True Love — Without You I am Nothing’: Youth, identity and the language of trainers for young men in prison Anita Wilson 173–196 Constructions of identity in German hip-hop culture Jan Berns and Peter Schlobinski 197–219 III. Representations and positionings Socio-cultural orientation, urban youth styles and the spontaneous acquisition of Turkish by non-Turkish adolescents in Germany Peter Auer and İnci Dirim 223–246 Swedish youth discourse: On performing relevant selves in interaction Catrin Norrby and Karolina Wirdenäs 247–278 The youth and the gatekeepers: Reproduction and change in language norm and variation Tore Kristiansen 279–302 Mediated experience and youth identities in a post-traditional order Lilie Chouliaraki 303–331 Index 333–338