This paper is concerned with exploring issues related to local embeddness. It is based
on material provided by a national sample of young people aged 10-12 years and 14-
17 years who were invited to write a single page about their lives and the future.
Approximately 34,000 young people did so within a school context. The paper is
based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a stratified random sample
of 4,100 of these texts. Firstly it looks at the significance and meaning of the local
area. Secondly it looks at their life styles as contexts for the relationship between the
global and the local –focussing particularly on those related to media and to sporting
activities. The paper concludes by noting that although many aspects of young
people’s lives draw on global products, the young people remain deeply embedded
within local contexts structured by age and gender.