Using the case of one rural community in Lampung province, Sumatra, Indonesia, this study explores rural youths’ life aspirations. The research focuses on the voices of youth and adult members of a rural community to understand differing narratives of success. I utilize the conceptual framework of narratives of success to denote the ways in which subjects, through a logic of narrative, knit together definitions of success and paths discursively constructed as leading towards a good life and successful adulthood. Two particularly strong narratives of success emerged from the study, including different narratives of success through schooling and a narrative of success through labor migration. My study shows that youths navigate through multiple narratives of success, where some narratives may be constructed as dominant or minor, while others are either complementary to or competing with one another. Further, utilizing Michel Foucault’s theory of subject and subjectification as an analytical framework, I discuss the ways that rural youth participants are “invited” into procedures of success-subjectification, and in their agency, establish differing subject-positions against particular narratives of success.The study seeks to recognize local narratives regarding schooling, success, and the good life that shape rural youths’ various aspirations. I depart from the assumption that youths and families decide courses of action on the basis of differing notions of a good life and what a successful transition into adulthood looks like, which may but does not necessarily involve continuing participation in schooling. This dissertation explores the complexity of local contexts that shape youths’ educational, employment, and even migratory aspirations.
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