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Folk devils have to date been significantly overlooked in previous studies of moral panics. While several studies have called attention to this problematic (Thornton and McRobbie 1995, De Young 2004, Lumsden 2009), no specific theoretical framework has been proposed for reading this dimension of a moral panic. This paper argues that a moral panic erupted over the gothic subculture following the horrific Columbine High School massacre of 20 April 1999. This paper subsequently offers a theoretical model for understanding how goths as folk devils reacted to their representation by the mainstream news media after this tragic event. Until the early 2000s very little scholarship had been produced on the gothic subculture. Instead researchers interested in the study of youth chose to focus on other subcultures, such as punk and club cultures. Although studies by Hodkinson (2002) and Brill (2008) have contributed comprehensive insights about goth to youth and subcultural studies, the subject of how goths have been the subject of moral panics has not been addressed in significant detail. This paper seeks to address this neglect, while also providing researchers interested in moral panics and youth culture a conceptual framework for better understanding folk devil reactions. (Contains 10 notes.)

This paper provides a reply to Woodman's (2009) recent argument that youth studies often incorrectly attribute the concept of "choice biographies" to the work of Ulrich Beck. Drawing heavily on Beck's own words, this paper contends that youth researchers might not be making this association unduly. Consideration is paid to some conceptual issues outlined by Will Atkinson, which Woodman has not appeared to consider, that challenge Beck's rejection of the relevance of structural analysis. Further, a review of some empirical evidence countering Beck's theory of "individualization" suggests that "middle-ground" positions in youth sociology can arguably be justified. Finally, it is proposed that Woodman's defence of Beck is partly a reflection of an alignment of focus between Beck's theoretical repertoire and Woodman's preferred method for understanding the youth period--the concept of generation. (Contains 12 notes.)

The apparent sexualization and exploitation of young girls by the consumer media is a much debated topic in the advanced liberal democracies. This paper will develop the argument that the "consumer-media culture" has established itself as one of the most powerful influences in processes of self-formation for young people, and that a tweenie self can be understood as an artefact of consumption. We will identify and analyse the resources that the consumer media provides to tweenies--girls aged between 9 and 14--as they seek to "fashion" a sense of self. The paper presents an analysis of the resources presented to this population of young girls/women by an Australian "appearance" magazine, "Dolly". We will argue that these identity resources are limited in scope, are dominated by images of young, slim and attractive females, and position the tweenie self as an artefact of consumption.

This paper challenges the orientations and assumptions underpinning policies for disadvantaged young people (DYP) in Australia. We argue that policy interventions for young people generally exhibit a binary divide, some policies fostering leadership and creative endeavours targeted on "high-functioning" young people, especially within educational and arts milieus, while other policies, focusing on DYP, take a remedial orientation. The basis for this binary divide is, we argue, flawed social constructions of young people, constructions that pathologise or privilege behaviours, attitudes and lifestyles. The consequences for DYP are that remedial policies, designed to get and keep young people "on track", are often ignoring deeper developmental needs. Using recent research findings from arts programmes for young people, the paper argues for a broader policy orientation, including developmental needs, to strengthen remedial policies and programmes and open the potential for pathways to resilience.

In "The Corrosion of Character" Richard Sennett contends that the storied nature of human experience is stunted by "conditions of the new economy". He argues that individuals are unable to develop "coherent life narratives" in the absence of job security. Thus, continuous employment somehow provides coherence: at least, enduring relationships with a single employer--which were possible under the auspices of organised capitalism--facilitate continuity in adult life more broadly. This paper draws on Linde's typology of "coherence strategies" and in-depth interviews with young adult workers to demonstrate that young Europeans construct coherence by piecing together episodes of employment, unemployment and education in their biographies. Thus, the unfolding of the narrative is perhaps less likely to be enhanced by a sustained relationship with a single employer than discontinuous episodes of employment as part of the reflexive "project of the self". Nonetheless, the degree to which young adults reflexively engage in life as a project is structured by their position within social hierarchies. This paper puts forward contrasting reflexive strategies, which are discursively appropriated by young adults depending--in part--on their labour market experience, in order to construct coherence. (Contains 1 table and 3 notes.)

A whole flurry of new thinking and research about young people in the USA has been stimulated by Jeffery Arnett's theory of 'Emerging Adulthood'. This argues for recognition of a new stage of the life-course between adolescence and adulthood reflecting the extension of youth transitions to independence brought about by globalization and technological change. Although the perspective aligns with developmental psychology's conception of "stages of development", its appeal extends across the social science disciplines and policy domains. However, the rich theorizing of the same manifestations of social change in young people's experience in European Youth Studies appear to have been largely overlooked by Arnett. This paper attempts to redress this balance by drawing into the framework of Emerging Adulthood a wider set of theoretical concerns with structural factors and exclusion mechanisms to which (late) modern youth are subjected. The argument is exemplified by age-30 cohort comparisons across three British longitudinal studies starting in 1946, 1958 and 1970, demonstrating rising opportunities accompanied by increased social inequality. The paper concludes with a re-appraisal of the concept of youth as a phase of the late modern life-course in which the properties Arnett attributes to Emergent Adulthood are just one significant feature. (Contains 4 figures, 1 table and 1 note.)

The conventional approach to youth transitions has focused on particular transitional points taking place after the completion of compulsory education. This paper focuses on the ways in which institutional regulations, individual agency, and emotions are related in bringing about such significant transitions that take place outside the traditional transitional points and before the endpoint of compulsory education. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of agency as being emotionally and socially structured and interlinked to the family and the institutional resources available for a young person. It uses Ruth Lister's typology of forms of agency as well as the concept of "bounded" agency introduced by Karen Evans in 2007. Drawing on research focusing on the biographies and future hopes of young people involved in programmes offering targeted support, the paper aims to illustrate young people's attempts to take control of their complicated life situations in the areas of family life, peer relations, and education. By initiating a transition from one status to another outside the traditional transitional points, the young people were able to position themselves in a way that allowed them, from their point of view, to become better resourced in their present situation as well as in terms of their future. (Contains 1 table and 7 notes.)

Participatory methodologies are increasingly employed in research with young people. These practices stem from a desire to reduce problematic distributions of power in research and to construct knowledge with young people rather than for them. This paper examines research conducted with a small group of young people experiencing exclusion from school, which aimed to understand those experiences and their implications for education. The research took a post-structural, critical approach, engaging in performances of praxis, and examined the methodological processes of the research as well as the issues of power in education that the work set out to scrutinise. An account of the ways in which discursive contexts of academic research itself and institutions like secondary education can influence opportunities for participation are presented. The paper describes the ways in which performances of power emerged from a researcher position, finding barriers and conventional assumptions difficult to resist and from a young person position, successfully resisting inherently problematic practices. The paper raises serious questions about our understandings of participatory research and its widespread adoption with young people.

This paper presents the findings from a project investigating the circumstances, experiences, perspectives and service needs of young people caring for a family member with a disability or long-term illness. Using qualitative methods, our research explored the experiences of two cohorts of young carers--younger carers aged 7 to 17 years and young adult carers aged 18 to 25 years. The concept of "bounded agency" offers an explanation for the way that younger carers' and young adult carers' decisions and aspirations can be shaped by the barriers and contexts in which they find themselves. The study compares the impacts of caring on the participants' education, employment, health and social life. Important differences are identified, particularly relating to young adult carers' future aspirations as they approach key normative transitions into young adulthood. The paper concludes with implications for services and policy for young carers. (Contains 1 table.)

In a time of rapid and unprecedented social change, the concepts we use to make sense of the ways in which young people understand and interact with the world are very much under the microscope. Some researchers argue that we need to reinvigorate our conceptual repertoire, while others argue that our theoretical tool box still has the capacity to consider continuities as well as change. Building on an earlier paper, this article provides a rejoinder to recent contributions to this debate written by Woodman and Threadgold. Attending to some misunderstandings, misinterpretations and oversights, the article aims to clarify and re-emphasise some important points I have made previously. In particular, the article argues for a coherent and comprehensive critical review of Beck's corpus before we uncritically and readily incorporate his perspectives into our ways of theorising the contemporary social world. (Contains 5 notes.)

This paper explores the aspirations of a group of young women in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It examines how their hopes and expectations are influenced by the reality of their everyday lives and the extent to which they are able to influence the course of their lives and become agents for change in their own communities. As with adolescents in lower socio-economic groups, the majority of young women in River Town have not developed life goals or clear strategies of how to achieve these goals. The choices that young women have are constrained by their narrow range of experience, which is characterized by early pregnancies and the potential threat of male violence. However, young women have articulated specific domains where they are able to control and structure their lives. This paper discusses the experiences of young women in this remote Aboriginal community. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Although children of parents with an alcohol or other drug (AOD) issue appear to assume a range of caring responsibilities within their families they have, until recently, been excluded from the growing body of young-carer research, policy and practice. This is problematic, as this group may experience greater levels of social exclusion whilst experiencing similar negative impacts of care as their caring peers. This paper discusses the findings of an exploratory qualitative research project conducted in Canberra, Australia which attempted to further understand these young people's experiences and to consider how they might best be supported. The paper challenges the way that young caring has been conceptualised and suggests that unless a number of conceptual, structural and organisational changes are made, young people caring for a parent with an AOD issue may remain relatively unsupported. (Contains 2 notes.)

A common theme in the literature on care-giving is the issue of "hidden" carers, that is, people who undertake caring roles and responsibilities, yet do not identify themselves as carers. One reason people do not recognise themselves as carers relates to the nature of the caring relationship. When providing care for a family member, intra-familial bonds of love and reciprocity do not encourage parties to view the relationship as anything other than a "normal" familial relationship. The lack of self-identification amongst young carers is complicated further by societal norms surrounding care-giving. Whereas adults are expected to provide care to other adults and children, young people are not expected to be care-givers but rather care recipients. As a result, many young carers remain "hidden" and beyond the reach of services and supports designed to help them in their caring role. This paper draws on qualitative research with young carers and service providers to explore the issue of self-identification amongst young carers. The paper concludes with recommendations for identifying and supporting hidden young carers. (Contains 6 notes.)

This paper seeks to examine students' values in "relationship to their studies." After defining the concept within this rubric, we attempt to define the values at work from the perspectives of (1) the motivation for pursuing post-secondary studies; (2) the pace of studies; (3) the time devoted to study; (4) the time spent in the institutions; and (5) student culture. The study focuses on students enrolled in the medicine and sociology programs. Our paper draws primarily from the results of an online survey and interviews of a sampling of the target student population, with the analysis in both cases developed in light of the distinction between "instrumental" values and "expressive" values. The analysis presented here is based on theories recently developed in France and Quebec regarding values, students and student attitudes toward their program of study. (Contains 6 notes, 2 tables, and 2 figures.)

This paper draws on a series of 45 interviews with recipients of social assistance between the ages of 16 and 24 to offer a critical assessment of the language of "risk" and "resilience." After briefly tracing the development of this vocabulary and approach in youth research, this paper argues in line with existing critiques (Kelly 2000, te Riele 2006, France 2007) that neither risk nor resilience is an appropriate way of coming to understand young people's past, present, or future lives. Moreover, the authors argue that the language of risk and resilience commits a form of "symbolic violence" (Bourdieu 1999, Frank 2002, Zizek 2008) against young people whose lives are presumably captured and finalized by this conceptual language. Instead, the authors propose that, when dealing with young people and the future, a focus on narrative and the "desirable futures" interviewees envision for themselves is a more humane, and in many respects a more fruitful way of approaching the study of young lives. (Contains 12 notes.)

A Gap Year is a break in an educational career, principally taken between leaving school and beginning university. Previous research on the Gap Year has suggested it is a form of social class positioning or forum for undertaking transitions in identity during young adulthood. This paper extends this research into the context of higher education itself. The paper illustrates, by a detailed analysis of interview data, that significant identity work is undertaken by young people in their accounts of their Gap Year. It demonstrates that this identity work, involving talk of confidence, maturity and/or independence, is related to two forms of distinction: a life course distinction and a social distinction. The paper discusses the significance of this identity work for our understandings of the Gap Year, its place in young people's transitions to adulthood and for future research. (Contains 3 notes.)

One of the greatest challenges for the juvenile justice system is to successfully reintegrate young offenders back to their communities so that they do not re-offend and return to detention. This challenge is even greater for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth who are over-represented in the Queensland juvenile justice system in terms of interactions with the police, the courts and in detention settings. This paper presents the outcomes of a two-year-longitudinal study which tracked 40 young Indigenous males as they made the transition from detention in North Queensland back to their communities. Over this period the majority of youth arrived at "undesirable" destinations by re-offending and returning to detention, compared to a smaller cohort who arrived at 'desirable' destinations and desisted from crime. The paper presents qualitative data from the research which focused on gaining the perceptions of these young males by asking them to identify the risks which prevented them from making a successful re-entry back to their communities compared to those who desisted from further offending behaviour.

This paper concerns the declining role of the welfare state in supporting young adults. The literature on new social risks concentrates on the incapacity of institutions to respond to a new social situation, and has so far largely neglected the capacity of alternative systems or institutions to fill the vacuum created. The focus in the paper is on the situation of young adults in a Nordic welfare state, in which social security benefits have developed unfavourable. Perusal of Finnish data on welfare-state programmes and financial transfers across generations, and of the literature on new social risks, reveal that young adults living on the basic level of social security, such as basic unemployment benefit, a student grant or child home-care allowance, are in a particularly vulnerable economic position. On a more detailed level, the article shows that the proportion of people receiving financial support from their parents has been increasing at the same time as the welfare state's ability to provide support has been diminishing. The overall conclusion is that there is an invisible compensatory mechanism offsetting the economic vulnerability of many young adults. (Contains 5 notes, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)

This article builds upon the literature examining the relationship of contemporary youth with politics and youth civic participation through a study exploring youth citizenship in post-socialist Ukraine. Specifically, drawing upon qualitative research undertaken during 2005-2006 with young people (aged 15-18) from two contrasting regions in East and West Ukraine, this paper uses three examples to highlight (and contrast across regions, where applicable) the potential of young Ukrainians to engage in various forms of democratic participation. In particular, this paper will use the following examples both to examine and illustrate youth participation: (1) youth and the political upheavals known as the Orange Revolution; (2) models of private/community-focused citizenship articulated by youth; and (3) school citizenship education practices. In relation to these examples, the article suggests that young people's positions and practices are reminiscent of those citizenship perspectives which embrace the informal and contextual nature of civic participation focused on unconventional acts of citizenship. Connected to this, it argues that locality and schools may provide youth with an important space for civic engagement and for exercising democratic citizenship. Implications for educational practice are also explored with respect to the possibilities for place-based active citizenship education. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

This paper is based on findings from ethnographic research which explored the impact of the Connexions initiative on the lives of young people. The fieldwork took place in three drop-in centres for young people, all of which were delivery sites for Connexions. Utilising the theoretical concepts of identity and self-esteem, it grounded this exploration in an understanding of young people themselves, their hopes and concerns, the aspects of their lives that are important to them, their sources of self-esteem and their means of support when they experience difficulty. This paper highlights the importance of social capital in young people's lives and acknowledges that Connexions has the potential to enhance this capital. However, it also emphasises the significance of existing social networks and the personal capital of young people themselves, which assists their forward movement. In addition, this paper draws attention to the limitations of Connexions targets that aim to reduce the numbers of young people "N"ot in "E"ducation, "E"mployment or "T"raining (NEET), a measure which fails to recognise the progress that certain young people feel they have made.

In this paper we draw upon our findings from a project in the South West region of England. The research involved a collaboration between a group of university researchers and Connexions service personal advisers and mainly comprised interviews with young people, who were in "jobs without training" (JWT). A key aim of the research was to explore the experiences of this group of marginalised and socially disadvantaged young people over a period of 1 year, as they moved into and out of work. In this paper we address the main findings and questions raised by the research. We challenge some commonly held assumptions about young people in JWT and their perceived needs. We end with a number of policy and practice-related suggestions and recommendations. (Contains 3 notes.)

Environmental policies and practices have maintained a high status internationally, nationally and locally, but limited literature relates to the perspective of social disadvantage in England, with a particular under-representation of young people. The research presented in this paper has been driven by the supposition that a lack of knowledge and research into the views of socially deprived young people, and a lack of engagement with them at a policy level perpetuates the notion that such groups not only have a lack of environmental concern, but may also be seen to be part of the problem. However, exploring the local environmental comprehension of young people allows the assessment of their potential value in local decision-making processes. This research is of continuing relevance, as environmental issues are increasingly highlighted as a major concern for those who experience social disadvantage. This paper presents the findings of a research project conducted in 2008 with socially disadvantaged young people in a youth club setting and makes use of environmental images based on a range of themes. The core aims of this paper are to increase understanding about the environmental views, concerns and knowledge of socially disadvantaged young people, to contrast this understanding with existing evidence relating to socially disadvantaged adults, and then to consider any implications for participation strategies. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This paper focuses on participatory research and how it can be understood and employed when researching children and youth. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion of participatory research methodologies with respect to investigating the dynamic and evolving phenomenon of young people growing up in networked societies. Initially, we review the nature of participatory research and how other researchers have endeavoured to involve young people (children and youth) in their research projects. Our review of these approaches aims to elucidate what we see as recurring and emerging issues with respect to the methodological design of involving young people as co-researchers. In the light of these issues and in keeping with our aim, we offer a case study of our own research project that seeks to understand the ways in which high-school students use new media and network ICT systems (Internet, mobile phone applications, social networking sites) to construct identities, form social relations, and engage in creative practices as part of their everyday lives. The article concludes by offering an assessment of our tripartite model of participatory research that may benefit other researchers who share a similar interest in youth and new media. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper reports on a comprehensive evaluation of the Advance programme by Victoria University in 2007/08. Advance is a flexible school-based programme for young people to volunteer or implement a project of benefit to their communities in the state of Victoria, in Australia. It is a partnership between the Office for Youth, Victorian government secondary schools, and community organizations. Through participation in Advance, young people identify issues of concern or interest in their communities, and then work in partnership with community organizations to develop and deliver a community-based project or series of volunteering activities. Young people are encouraged to plan projects that build skills and make a difference in their community. This research collected data from nearly 1,000 young people. The paper reports on their perspectives of a programme that provided them with the opportunities to lead a programme and to engage in a curriculum that was underpinned by a strong pedagogy of experiential learning. (Contains 17 tables and 5 figures.)

In this paper we present our experiences of conducting focus groups with young people as part of a participatory approach to research design and participant recruitment. The research is a prospective, 10-year, qualitative, longitudinal project investigating young people's daily lives, relationships, and identities, and the ways these change over time. It adopts a multi-method approach in which each participant has a choice about which methods to be involved with. Part of the project planning and recruitment was completed through focus groups held in schools across metropolitan and rural West Yorkshire with young people aged 13. The focus groups enabled us to recruit participants from a variety of backgrounds. They were also an important medium through which to elicit the views of young people (which were perceptively and constructively critical) about project design, methods development, and dissemination events. The paper focuses on what we learnt from these focus groups and considers the value of engaging participants in designing qualitative research. (Contains 4 notes.)

Equal participation in paid employment is regarded as a basic entitlement within human rights discourse. Recent organizational studies highlight how the workplace can operate as a socially divided space for queer (or non-heterosexual) workers, depicting the workplace as a problematic site of sexuality-based discrimination and abuse. The aim of this paper is to locate the experiences of young queer workers as newcomers to the Australian labour market and to shed light on how young queer people negotiate sexually exclusive and inclusive workspaces. The findings from this qualitative study were developed from a series of interviews with 34 young people (18-26 years old) who primarily identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) and were employed in a diverse range of industries. Based on their stories, this paper will argue that workplaces can function as both sexually exclusive and inclusive spaces. Within exclusive spaces, young people experienced a series of symbolically and materially violent practices that reinforced the boundaries of sexual normalcy in the workplace. Within inclusive spaces, young people gave weight to everyday "micro-practices" of inclusion over wider workplace policy and procedures. Findings from this research hold significant implications for informing organizational change. (Contains 1 table and 3 notes.)

Despite a growing concern about gangs in Britain, academic research that focuses on gangs remains scarce. Drawing on data from the ESRC-funded ethnographic research YOGEC (Youth Gangs in an English City) project, this paper explores the negotiation of space and place by young people living in inner-city areas affected by gangs. Using a combination of fieldwork observations and focus group and interview data, this paper charts the experiences of non-gang-involved young people living in known gang areas. These young people's restricted use of space, arising as a result of gang rivalries and the policing of inner-city areas, results in exclusion, marginalization and victimization. We illustrate how young people are identified as "high risk", and how they continually negotiate a range of risks bound up with the territory that they inhabit and subsequent spatial boundaries that are formed. In doing so, we provide an understanding of the lives of young people who reside in places and spaces inhabited by gangs. (Contains 10 notes.)

This paper presents evidence from the biographies of samples totaling 1,215 young adults in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, who all reached age 16 between 1986 and 1992, and whose subsequent life histories coincided with their countries' transitions from communism. The evidence is used to examine whether new classes are being created in the new market economies and, if so, where the new divisions lie. Economic classes are defined as aggregates with typical and distinctive labour market and work situations. The evidence points to the creation of two such groups, a middle class and a lower class. Corresponding social differences in family and leisure careers are identified. The paper points out that these emergent class formations are different from those in the West, and gives reasons why they are less likely to become politically efficacious than were classes in the West's more mature market economies during the twentieth century. (Contains 12 tables.)

The paper presents an analysis of young people's orientations, and expectations for the future, as they relate to family context and socio-economic background. It draws on data from both the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and from "Young Lives and Times", part of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. The latter study has generated both quantitative and qualitative data, and these are brought together directly in developing the arguments in the paper. The paper explores young people's perceptions of family life, and offers new evidence and analysis of the value they place on emotional support. Attitudinal data show that such support is seen as very important to future success alongside more individualistic, meritocratic, criteria. The paper then explores family contexts and youngsters' orientations to schoolwork, and their expectations for their future education. In respect of the latter, socio-economic background becomes key as a predictor of difference. Through strategically linking qualitative and quantitative data, the paper develops an analysis of individuals' orientations and expectations as these relate to proximate circumstances. Linking quantitative and qualitative evidence in this way helps provide insights into diverse subjectivities, and how they articulate with diverse, class-varying, normal expectations. (Contains 3 tables and 8 notes.)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the complexities involved in young people's attempts to move away from criminal activity. This paper draws on qualitative data from a study that aimed to identify how young people negotiate transitions away from offending. The paper argues that an analysis of the subtle shifts in young people's perceptions and interpretations of their situation sheds light on the complex nature of desisting from crime. To do so, the paper focuses on the role of relevance in order to explore how these subtle shifts in thinking enable young people to reinterpret their lives and move towards desistance. By way of undertaking this analysis, this paper draws on Alfred Schutz's phenomenological approach to the nature of relevance to explore how young people shift between their known world of "doing crime" and an unknown world of being "straight and legitimate". (Contains 9 notes.)

Effective youth participation in social development and civic life can enhance young peoples' health and well-being. Yet many obstacles stand in the way of such involvement. Drawing on 105 interviews, 52 focus groups and fieldworker diaries, this paper reports on a study of a rural South African project which sought to promote effective youth participation in HIV/AIDS management. The paper highlights three major obstacles which might be tackled more explicitly in future projects: (i) reluctance by community adults to recognise the potential value of youth inputs, and an unwillingness to regard youth as equals in project structures; (ii) lack of support for meaningful youth participation by external health and welfare agencies involved in the project; and (iii) the failure of the project to provide meaningful incentives to encourage youth involvement. The paper highlights five psycho-social preconditions for participation in AIDS projects (knowledge, social spaces for critical thinking, a sense of ownership, confidence and appropriate bridging relationships). We believe this framework provides a useful and generalisable way of conceptualising the preconditions for effective "participatory competence" in youth projects beyond the specialist HIV/AIDS arena. (Contains 4 notes.)

This paper seeks to explore how we might understand young people's agency in sexuality research using visual methods. It is concerned with troubling the perception that power is held by the adult researcher and denied to youthful participants who simply submit to their authority. Rather than attempting to cast moments of young people's agency as examples where the relations of ruling are reversed, this paper endeavours to tease out the nuances inherent in young people's agency. This examination is undertaken in relation to selected episodes from research investigating the sexual culture of secondary schools using photo-diary and photo-elicitation methods. To elucidate the mechanisms of young people's agency, Butler's and Davies' work on the process of subjectification is drawn upon. Using a post-structural theoretical framework, it is argued that young people's agency involves a simultaneous mastery and submission, which is a consequence of the process of subjecthood. (Contains 5 notes.)

There have been many debates in the literature about the extended transition to adulthood many young people are experiencing in late modern times. However, not all young people make this prolonged transition and, for some, resources within their family and community networks are insufficient to enable an extended transition into stable, independent adult roles. The findings presented in this paper are drawn from a large participatory research project investigating the impact of decriminalisation on the health and safety practices of sex workers in New Zealand. This paper utilises the talk of 17 street-based sex workers who entered the industry under the age of 18 years, as well as using data from a survey of 772 sex workers in New Zealand. For young people entering the industry prior to the age of 18, the period of adolescence was short-lived and their inability to gain support through either their family or the government meant that they opted to work in the sex industry to survive. Unsupported transitions into adulthood are characterised by a high degree of risk with limited employment options. This research highlights the need for policy-makers to develop holistic, multi-sectorial policies for young people which are not based on age-specific frameworks. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper examines the development of "vocational habitus" as five apprentices in the carpentry trade move from high school to an apprenticeship training centre and then into the workplace. After a year, three students were continuing with the apprenticeship while the other two were not. This paper explores how individual and structural factors came together to produce these outcomes through an analysis of data from interviews with the students, their parents, and trainers. Analysis of the data suggests that signs along the way foreshadow outcomes--for example, students' prior experiences in school and part-time work, expectations regarding training and work in the trades, family support, social capital, and locations within the field. Findings suggest that more support could be provided for young people who are likely to experience difficulty with transitions, and more explicit attention could be given to helping students recognize tensions between fields while developing a "feel for the game". (Contains 5 notes.)

This paper draws on life history interviews with young adults in the UK to consider Manuela du Bois-Reymond's claims about the increasing prevalence of "trendsetter learners" across Europe. Du Bois-Reymond has argued that certain groups of young adults are at the forefront of developing new forms of learning in response to what they perceive to be the failings of formal education--namely the disjuncture between theory and practice within the education that they are offered and a lack of respect from many of the teachers with whom they come into contact. These young adults, she contends, are the "trendsetter learners", creating youth cultural capital that helps them to realise self-determined ways of living and learning. In considering some of these claims, this paper draws on data from the "Young Graduates and Lifelong Learning" project funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council. Between September 2005 and January 2006, 90 in-depth life history interviews were conducted with graduates from six higher education institutions. Our findings suggest that the degree of autonomy, freedom and creativity in young people's patterns of learning that underpin du Bois-Reymond's analysis is over-stated. We argue that, while du Bois-Reymond's work makes an important contribution to conceptualising the ways in which young Europeans engage with learning, her dichotomy between "trendsetter" learners and their "disengaged" counterparts overlooks: complexities inherent in this relationship, the social status attached to particular forms of more traditional education and training, and the structuring nature of much workplace learning. (Contains 4 notes.)

The multiple and conflicting identity pressures that young women in western society face have been remarked upon in the literature. Adolescence is a time when identity development activity intensifies, and this process can present young people with challenges. In this paper a social constructionist and interpretive frame is applied to such challenges faced by young women, arguing that they are refracted through socially constructed lenses that operate at a range of levels from the structural to the individual. The paper considers the experiences of two different cohorts of young females who participated in research based in two provincial communities in New Zealand. It explores the way in which both groups appeared to segment their sense of self into a present and a future self, emphasising relationship; the key source of their current sense of well-being in the present, and juxtaposing this with an independent, autonomous self in the future for whom relationships appeared to assume secondary importance. Findings from two studies are examined to identify the ways in which younger females articulate their imagined futures. Rather than seeing their imagined futures as predictive, or constituting a type of plan that they expected to work towards, we see these future narratives as expressing their understanding of their present time worlds and the possibilities they see for girls and young women like themselves. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper reports results from an ethnographic study of African-American youth subculture in a New Orleans high school. The paper contends that youth subculture remains an important construct to situate stylistic resistance among subaltern groups like urban black youth that confront demands for conformity from representatives of institutional authority with alternative cultural solutions. The core argument is that resistance to demands for conformity among members of this subculture stands as a challenge to institutional power enforced by agents of media, school, police, and the prison that label as deviant stylistic expressions such as wearing sagging black pants and braided hairstyles. However, care must be taken not to reify youth subculture affiliation as overly inclusive and resistant, and instead focus on the variable commitment of participants to dominant culture or subculture. Subcultural styles like wearing sagging black pants manifest an ambiguous cocktail of resistance and acceptance of hegemonic ideals and reveal the contradictory fashion and behavioral codes of contending status orders that validate identities. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper is concerned with exploring how in late modernity the "youth question" is being addressed by public policy and what impact this is having on understandings of childhood and youth. Historically the youth question has been shaped by adult anxieties over youth delinquency and their problems of social integration. In late modernity, this is still the case but new approaches to tackling social problems are emerging. Public policy influenced by the emerging "science of prevention" has developed new forms of interventions, which are seen in the expansion of risk factor analysis in prevention policy. This paper explores the development of this new approach to the youth question, highlighting its history, its influence and its underlying assumptions. The concluding discussion will show how this area of public policy development is leading to greater levels of regulation and intervention and is widening the net in terms of defining young people as the future problem generation. (Contains 6 notes.)

Popular music is increasingly being viewed by local, state and national governments as a useful form of creative activity for at-risk youth both within and outside young offender institutions. This paper examines a music programme operating for a group of predominantly black youth within one North American detention centre, and considers the range of benefits observed in fostering individual creativity, self-esteem and social communication. Popular music programmes--in this case, rapping and basic music sequencing and composition--offer a highly practical and direct means of allowing youth offenders to express a particular form of creativity in connection with their existing music and cultural interests. This paper considers the relative success of one programme and the implications for drawing upon hip-hop music, with its themes of deviance and resistance, as a creative vehicle within a broader environment of "offender to citizen" discourses for the youth involved. (Contains 7 notes.)

The militarization of children and their active participation in conflict continues to be a global phenomenon affecting hundreds of thousands of children. Yet many of the realities of child soldiery remain unclear and continue to be under-researched. In particular, the process of militarization and how it impinges on the identities and actions of children who are drawn into conflict remains poorly understood. Similarly, the experiences of children undergoing demobilization and a return to post-conflict, non-militarized social circumstances are essentially undocumented. Through the use of a life-history approach, this paper examines the making and unmaking of two Sierra Leonean child soldiers, one female and one male, in relation to the militarization of social systems and subsequent efforts to demobilize belligerent social groups. The paper reviews the turnings and epiphanies of these children's lives--particularly how these children became implicated as combatants in Sierra Leone's civil war, the manner and degree to which they assumed a militarized "identity", and their subsequent efforts to re-adapt to civilian life in a context of post-war demilitarization. (Contains 4 notes.)

This paper examines how young people living in a violent neighbourhood construct understandings about danger, violence and safety. Reporting findings from a qualitative study that investigated these issues with 8-14 year olds in a South African neighbourhood, the paper identifies how young people attempted to stay safe through reliance on adult protection, avoidance and escape, peer support and retaliation. Through close examination of three discussions between the young people, the paper considers tensions and troubles in their talk about violence, risk and safety, and discusses the complex ways in which they managed these tensions, the implications for their safety and vulnerability, and how these changed over time in gendered ways. Finally, the paper considers the implications for interventions that aim to keep young people safe. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper argues that a particular form of Selfhood has come to dominate the horizons of identity in the Western democracies at this time--I refer to this form of personhood as the entrepreneurial Self. The paper argues that the figure (population) of "Youth at-risk", in its negativity, illuminates the positivity that is the entrepreneurial Self. That is, the discourses that construct Youth at-risk reveal the truths about whom we should, as adults, become. The paper engages with Foucault's theories of government, of (Neo)Liberalism as a problematisation of the practise of Liberal welfare government, and of the ways in which certain psychological discourses articulate with (Neo)Liberal views of enterprise to produce a view of the Self as the entrepreneurial Self. (Contains 4 notes.)

In the social sciences, not many theses have been as contentious as the underclass thesis. Nevertheless, whether as a heuristic device to study society or as a target of ideological or academic attack, the underclass thesis has been used a focus of attention by a wide spectrum of researchers, politicians and journalists. In post-industrial societies the debate on the existence, nature and causes of the underclass has been raging on for decades. There is a plethora of ideological, policy, ontological and methodological disputes around it. This discussion takes the underclass thesis to the streets of Harare in Zimbabwe. It explores the possibilities of the formation of an underclass among the inner-city youth of Harare. Using indicators developed by Roberts and other scholars, the paper suggests something different is happening among the inner-city youth. While not proclaiming the existence of an underclass, the paper traces the emergence of a distinct inner-city social group to both structural and cultural factors. (Contains 4 notes, 1 figure, and 4 tables.)

This paper reports on a qualitative research project that explored the influence of basic skills on the school-to-work transitions of young adults. Large numbers of young people have poor skills yet it is a neglected area of study. We document how skill competencies act as barriers to learning and labour market opportunities, illustrating that some individuals are "reticent" about accessing opportunities and that individual decision-making and agency are important to transitions. The paper illustrates the relationships between decision-making and the structuring effects of prior learning experiences and indicates therefore how structural conditioning and agential processes are linked and together shape transition routes. (Contains 7 notes.)

Forty years ago, between 1962 and 1964, fieldwork was carried out on the research project "Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles". Using archived materials relating to the little known Norbert Elias project, this paper has two aims. First, to introduce this largely unknown aspect of Elias's work to a wider audience. Second, to explore in detail Elias's contributions to the project by piecing together his ideas and hypotheses from archived materials. During the early stages of the research, Elias suggested that the transition from school to work constituted a "shock" experience and that young people would experience initial difficulties in adjusting to their new role. He suggested that difficulties would emerge in their relationships with older workers, with family and with their new income. For the first time this paper presents Elias's "shock" hypothesis, and his thoughts on school to work transitions. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of the shock hypothesis and the possible impact that the "Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles" project may have on Elias's standing in British sociology. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper presents data on the construction of masculinity among 965 boys aged 15-18 years, in six schools, in Melbourne, Australia. The data are part of a much larger research project on teenage boys and spirituality, and this paper presents data within the component of spirituality, which in the research is termed "connectedness with the self". The boys responses to the question "What kind of man do you want to be?" are presented in three categories: personal integrity and relationship values; success oriented values; and physical/personality values. It is argued that the dominance of personal integrity/relationship values in the boys' responses suggests that a key component of their spirituality is a growing tendency to challenge the hegemonic ideal of masculinity, and to look towards a future where masculinity is defined in more varied and fulfilling ways. (Contains 5 notes and 7 tables.)

This paper is located in a larger study of girls' empowerment within the everyday context of school cultures. While much feminist research has focused on the "perils" of feminine adolescence, we are interested in how girls successfully navigate the transition from girlhood to adult womanhood. Thus the sample for this paper includes girls who consciously positioned themselves against an "emphasized femininity" that made their classmates popular, but that has been blamed for girls' lowered self-esteem, dissatisfaction with their bodies, and disordered eating. Because their self-positioning carried the risk of marginalization within peer cultures, we ask "What makes their alternative self-representations possible?" We are particularly interested in whether their transgressive identities signal a rewriting of girlhood as a social rather than personal project, and how feminism might operate to support girls' empowerment. (Contains 5 notes.)

Bound to the notion of teenage apathy is the concern that young people are increasingly disengaged from political and community issues and lacking in social capital. Voting is often regarded as the ultimate form of civic engagement, which implicitly excludes young teenagers from consideration through their status as non-voters. Teenagers' alternative forms of participation are rarely valued as legitimate acts of civic engagement. As a result, many of the dominant writers on social capital neglect teenagers' abilities to generate and utilize social capital. Drawing on a three-year research project undertaken with over 600 teenagers aged 13-16, this paper uses three illustrative examples to highlight the ways in which teenagers deploy their social capital in order to transform people and places in two key ways. Firstly, teenagers' alternative forms of civic engagement are highlighted, demonstrating the ways in which many (re)shape their environments by, for example, campaigning for skate park facilities. Secondly, teenagers' alternative understandings of community, many of which are associated with lifestyle choices, are explored. In doing so, the paper brings to the fore the significance of teenagers' social capital. (Contains 2 figures and 4 notes.)

This exploratory paper seeks, first, to offer some critical sociological comments on the common-sense, or rather ideological, claims surrounding two supposedly emerging "crises": namely, the alleged poor health and declining sport and physical activity participation levels of young people. In this regard, it is suggested that while young people are, in fact, doing more sport and physical activity than at any other time in the past, this process has, and continues to, co-occur with other prominent social processes (e.g., rising levels of overweight, obesity and sedentariness). Second, the paper begins to make sense of this seemingly "irreconcilable paradox" by arguing for the need to make use of a sociological perspective that views the complexity of young people's lives "in the round" and by locating them within the particular social interdependencies or relationships in which they are inescapably involved. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper draws on a systematic review of qualitative research to explore the resilient mothering practices that young, British, working-class mothers employ to care for their children. The synthesis of studies of UK mothers under the age of 20 demonstrates how young working-class women must mother in impoverished circumstances, at the same time as being discursively positioned outside the boundaries of "normal" motherhood. Consequently, they utilize the only two resources to which they may have access: their families and their own personal capacities. Engaging with debates regarding the extent of the transformations of the social in late modernity, the paper discusses the most prominent of the young mothers' practices: investment in the "good" mother identity, maintaining kin relations, and prioritization of the mother/child dyad. The paper argues that, while the young mothers' practices display reflexivity and individualism, they are also deeply embedded in, and structured by, social inequalities. (Contains 4 tables.)