Unpacking "Third culture kids": the transnational lives of young people at an International school in Indonesia

This thesis examines global mobility and transnational identities in the lives of young people at an international school in Indonesia. It is an anthropological critique of the educational and psychology literature on ‘white’ transnational youth. Moving beyond singular, Eurocentric notions of cosmopolitanism, it uses methodological cosmopolitanism and postcolonial theory to contextualize individual experiences of mobility within national and transnational socio-cultural hierarchies. Culture, nation, class, ‘race’, and gender mediate young people’s experiences of mobility and international schools, resulting in diverse practices of cosmopolitan engagement with Others among transnational youth. These practices reflect the ambivalence that characterizes transnational youth’s articulation of identity.