Martin Demant Frederiksen

Martin Demant Frederiksen is a PhD scholar, Department of Anthropology and Ethnography at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. His research topic is – “Ownership time and agency among youth in Georgia.”  The focus in his research is on young Georgians relation to the future and how the understanding and use of material objects affect upon this relation in terms of distance and identification. This project examines how ownership of material objects creates orientations towards the future among youth, and how it contributes to innovative acts and feelings of control in a present marked by social instability and changing relations between generations, state and citizen. The PhD is part of a larger research project on youth, agency and time. The aim of the project is to examine the role of future in the everyday lives of at-risk youth and the potential innovative measures taken by youth living in situations of crisis and uncertainty. The research is interested in the question, like: Within which socioeconomic, institutional and generational frames do youth in the Georgian region of Adjara live? Which perceptions of and aspirations for the future do the youth have? Which opportunities do they see and where does their inspiration come from? (parents, media, friends) How is the future made concrete for the youth (in acts, relations and objects), and how is especially material objects used to act towards the future?