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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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped life for all in countless ways. For young people, the pandemic accelerated the digitalization of school education and upended relations with peers, parents, and society as a whole. In this paper, we look beyond these immediate effects to explore how pandemic experiences, feelings, and thoughts suggest profound shifts in young people's perspectives on and orientations towards the future. Our research comprises parallel qualitative research with young people aged 15–19 in Denmark and Australia. Drawing on a posthumanist account of the world as entanglements of multiple human and non-human agencies and inspired by Donna Haraway's admonition to stay with the trouble of the world, we discuss how species meet as the coronavirus makes kin with the young people and how the young people's perspectives on the future become with the pandemic. That is, what intimations of worldings and reworldings can be glimpsed as young people shared their changed perspectives on priorities related to the meaning of life and the sustainability of the (more-than-) human condition from the midst of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the number of children in custody declines, the complex needs of many of them have increased. A review of the youth justice system stated that education needs to be the central pillar in preventing offending. Research suggests that education fails children, by prioritising reputation and the standards agenda over providing care and education that meets individual needs (Runswick-Cole. 2011. "Time to End the Bias Towards Inclusion." British Journal of Special Education 38 (3): 11). This paper explores this failure for children prior to and in custody itself, and relates this to a theoretical model that combines children's need and self-efficacy. It suggests that until children are guaranteed an environment where their basic needs are met, there is little hope of either education or training helping them to access a life free from crime, whatever other policy changes in custody are implemented. This research shows that current provisions, for children in custody, fail to support children's needs around safety, belonging and self-esteem. Thus, it is no surprise that children in Secure Training Centres fail to self-actualise their educational abilities, as they lack the self-efficacy to successfully engage with education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and work are two essential parts of young people’s lives. Currently, the relationship between education and work in the youth policy field is predominantly discussed from the perspective of a narrow economic discourse of education to work transitions. This is despite the fact that this narrow paradigm of examining youth transition from school to work which was prevalent in the 1980s and early 1990s has been consistently problematised and re-worked in the past few decades. Drawing on longitudinal data collected from a cohort of Australian young adults reporting their self-assessment of and their reflections on the connection between their study and work, this paper provides new empirical evidence in support of some of the arguments that have emerged within the field of youth studies regarding transition. Grounded in a broader conceptualisation of transition and informed by theories of youth citizenship, this paper highlights the complexities involved in young people’s navigation of education and work, and proposes the metaphor of a double helix which considers education and work as two interconnected venues through which recognition and meaning are achieved by young people in a postmodern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering an alien environment combines with the financial risk of rising costs and questionable long-term returns. This riskiness has been constructed as a major barrier to participation. However, national administrative data cast doubt on whether this analysis still holds true. Despite significant rises in tuition fees, the proportion of disadvantaged young people entering HE has continued to rise, with advantaged groups seemingly being more price-sensitive. Data from recent qualitative studies has also suggested that young people are now less attuned to risks. This paper considers whether circumstances in wider society have shifted perceptions of risk. The volatility resulting from the global financial crisis appears to have repositioned HE as a less risky option than early entry to the labour market, especially with more jobs becoming 'graduate', while the social risk has declined as HE has diversified. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives from Beck, Boudon, Simon and Kahneman to argue that many disadvantaged young people now view HE as a form of 'insurance' against an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates to what extent the likelihood of young people being long-term NEET can be explained by low literacy skills, how this varies across advanced countries, and how this cross-national variation can be explained by education and social policies. We use PIAAC data and include macro-level indicators on education and social policies. We analyze the likelihood of being long-term NEET versus being in employment or in education/training among some 34,000 young people aged 20–30 from 25 countries. We find that low-literate young people are more likely to be long-term NEET. While NEET risks are associated with countries' institutional characteristics, this does not mean that these characteristics and policies always work in favour of low-literate young people. Although high levels of (enabling) ALMP generally reduce the risk of being NEET, they do so less for low-literate young people. Additionally, young people living in social-democratic welfare states are less likely to be NEET, but low-literate young people seem to profit less from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates claims that millennial youth are being jilted by gilded baby boomers. The interrogation is by comparing the education and early experiences in labour and housing markets, then (when possible) the subsequent lives, of three post-1945 British cohorts: the immediate post-war cohort who completed education between 1945 and 1960, their children who passed through the same youth life stage in the late-1970s and 1980s, and finally the post-war cohort's grandchildren, the millennials who have completed their education since the late-2000s. The analysis searches for gilded and jilted sections within each of these cohorts by comparing their lives with those of their parents. It shows that no cohort has been uniformly gilded or jilted, and that the label (jilted or gilded) which appeared most appropriate when a cohort was making its education to work, and family and housing transitions, has often looked inappropriate by the latter part of their lives. The paper argues that it is too early to apply gilded or jilted labels to any sections of millennial youth, and that current appearances that they are victims of generational inequity are due to a long-term failure to match increased investments in human capital within families and in education with investments in the economy and housing that would enable the millennials to convert their human capital into commensurate jobs and accommodation suitable for new family household formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of neoliberalism on young people and youth workers through outsourcing government services has attracted critique from multiple sources. Post-structural analysis interrogates subjectification effects of these policies on youth. However, this kind of analysis of the governmental formation of youth ought to consider the interaction between the knowledge of youth underpinning neoliberal social policy, and those employed by non-government agencies implementing them. The interaction between these two shape the reciprocal governing activity within the young person and youth worker power-knowledge relationship that, this paper will argue, is an important factor in the critique of neoliberal social policy. Young people are governed by a diverse array of knowledges developed by government, youth studies, NGOs and young people themselves. These knowledges interact, reinforce and contradict discourses of youth work. This paper focuses on a neoliberal social policy (FLO) which constructs youth as a surplus population in need of risk management, and youth workers as the producers of young workers. Furthermore, I will consider the interfering subjectification effects produced by an intake and assessment tool (Your Story) utilised by a non-government FLO provider. These discourses underpinning Your Story and FLO render young people and their workers as relational beings or economic citizens respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on a longitudinal and multi-sited ethnographic study, explores the intersection between youth transitions, migration and relationships. It considers the complex ways in which rural Bolivian young people move back and forth between work and education, between home and migrant destinations as they strive to form their own household and develop new relationships, whilst continuing to maintain interdependent relations with their parents and siblings. It presents three life stories which outline the key role of relationships in shaping youth transitions and migrant trajectories. Whilst the three pathways are different, they also encompass some similar features: the complexity of deciding between school or work, the key role of migration, the importance of social networks and old/new relationships, and the impact of birth-ordered and gendered household relations. In particular the paper argues that the concept of negotiated and constrained interdependencies is a useful way of understanding the flexible and opportunistic yet limited nature of youth transitions in a context of migration. The paper is based on fieldwork which involved tracking down 14 of the 18 households who had been involved in my doctoral research over 10 years ago, and of these 14 households one or both parents and two or three of the siblings were interviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While research on youthful drinking is extensive, the literature has been geographically skewed towards urban settings. As a potential corrective to this, our focus in this paper is on youthful drinking in rural Denmark. Based on 22 in-depth interviews with young drinkers, this paper explores the drinking practices of rural youth. More specifically, drawing on Antonsich's [2010. "Searching for belonging–an analytical framework." Geography Compass 4 (6): 644–659] notion of place-belongingness, we examine how sentiments of belonging relate to locally embedded drinking practices. We highlight the extent to which rural drinking places are characterized by the participation of young men, whose educational and professional aims are predominantly tied to the local community and activities within it. In so doing, we show that these contexts are primarily associated with 'drinking a single', as opposed to drinking to intoxication like their urban peers. We argue further that these 'lighter' but frequent forms of alcohol use, which we term 'congenial drinking', are related to accomplishments of place-belongingness and stand out as a gendered, classed and place-bound phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people's aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people's aspirations. Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim. Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up. The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people's perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations. The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires needs a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Online social interaction has become integral to contemporary social life, adding new dimensions to how young people learn, interact, and perceive themselves and one another. This paper presents theoretical insights from a year-long ethnographic study within a Scottish secondary school, where participant observation and qualitative interviews were used to explain pupils’ informal social relationships. Here, pupils aged 11-18 constructed and negotiated a hyper-surveillanced social space within which many became (or strived to become) visible and ‘known’ amongst others and where online presentations of self were highly important. This facilitated a celebrity-esque culture amongst the pupil population whereby pupils learnt from and emulated macro celebrity culture and often framed social interactions as entertainment. Central to these practices, was a continual desire to ‘make gains in distinction’ by demonstrating high social status amongst peers. The paper explores the resulting implications for teaching, learning and pupil wellbeing within contemporary educational environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the extent to which ethnic minority and ethnic majority students in highly diverse urban schools identify with Flemish and European identity. In doing so this paper aims to discuss to what extent these sub-national and supranational identities can function as shared identities within the multiple identity belongings of teenagers and what the impact is of teacher support and perceived discrimination in schools on these phenomena. The analysis is based upon a survey among Belgian native and Moroccan origin students in the 5th and 6th year of secondary education in Antwerp, one of Europe's most diverse cities. The results show that Moroccan students identify more strongly with a European identity than with a Flemish identity, while Flemish native students identify more strongly with Flemish than with European identity. This results in a large 'identity gap' with respect to Flemish identity but a much smaller gap with respect to European identity. In addition, our results show a positive effect of teacher support on Flemish and European identity for Belgian students, while it only has a positive effect on European identity for Moroccan students. The broader implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the first two years of a longitudinal ethnographic study of 20 young people in northern England who have been officially classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET). Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's conceptualisation of space as perceived, conceived and lived, this paper analyses how young people comprehend, use and encounter places and spaces relating to residence, work and learning, and the role of spatialities in reproducing or interrupting aspects of social exclusion and marginality. A number of key themes emerging from the data are discussed, including the interaction of conceived, perceived and lived space in young people's struggles for subjectivity, the importance of agency and biography in shaping how different lived spaces emerge from this interaction, and the possibility of critical incidents causing shifts in lived space that intensify the difficulties young people face in finding appropriate education or employment. A particularly significant finding is that participants often feel isolated and lack control over their lives, resulting in alienation from authority and community that tends to further marginalise these young people, distancing them from meaningful contexts of education, training and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines complexities and interdependencies of key family relationships which anchor young people’s educational biographies. It is well recognised that young people’s education pathways in late modernity are strongly dependent on their ability to draw on the range of resources available, and that socio-economic status and family resources play a central role in this process. Less is known about how such relationships anchor young people’s education biographies. Drawing on theories of social capital and belonging in dialogue with qualitative interviews, and situated in studies of rural youth and education, this article considers how young people themselves talk and make decisions about their education in relation to complex family connections. These connections, contestations and negotiations between young people and central family members highlight how the late modern economy impacts on young people’s intimate relationships, and sheds light on the ongoing work of youth to resolve such tensions around their schooling in daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on research with 86 young refugees (aged 13–24 years) who were resettled to the UK between 2006 and 2010. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data we explore the educational aspirations and experiences of refugee youth, and how they negotiate post-compulsory education pathways. We find that despite the promise of educational opportunity and transformed life chances enshrined in the notion of refugee resettlement, many of the experiences and barriers to education are not dissimilar in kind to those facing refugee youth in countries of first asylum. Support for young refugees to make successful transitions into and through the education system is critical to their future lives and longer-term integration outcomes. The discussion is set within global discourses of refugee education and the literature of refugee education in the global north. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive research has shown that working-class young people often struggle in school. There has been a lack of research that explores young people's institutional experiences of education and support outside of the school context, however. This paper presents some of the findings from a qualitative study with 10 young people in Scotland, which addresses this gap by exploring young people's experiences of support and education beyond the school gates. It found that the participants had troublingly negative and strikingly unproductive school careers, and instead accessed support and education in one or two settings: through youth work and/or college-based further education. The more individually tailored and informal nature of these institutions, combined with what was widely felt to be a more relaxed and personal relationship dynamic between staff and young people, were highly valued by the participants, all of whom began to make concrete progress towards forming or achieving their aspirations in these settings, often for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on young people leaving the parental home has tended to focus most closely on charting and explaining the age at which young people leave, and exploring the incidence of returning after a period of living either 'semi-autonomously' or independently. The majority of these studies have been quantitative and fairly static in approach. This paper develops an approach to the topic that is more qualitative in its orientation and that views housing biographies as essentially dynamic. Using primary data from the United Kingdom, the paper constructs five 'ideal' typical housing pathways followed by young people: a chaotic pathway, and unplanned pathway, a constrained pathway, a planned (non-student) pathway, and a student pathway. The paper then gives particular consideration to the characteristics of the student pathway, and compares the experience of students studying away from the parental home with the long-term housing biographies of their non-student peers. The paper concludes that the typical student housing experience--including a supervised leaving of the parental home and a 'sheltered' spell in the private rented sector--constitutes an essential education in housing that enhances the housing and labour opportunities of graduates compared with other young people who have not studied away from the parental home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mobility has been a central tenet of UK Government public policy, viewed as a silver bullet to creating a socially just and ‘fair’ society as well as an economically successful one. Within policy discourse young people's aspirations are deemed of critical importance to achieving educational success and in turn social mobility. However, within both popular and policy rhetoric ‘place attachment’ is routinely posited as a serious hindrance to successful realisation of aspiration, putatively because it embeds young people in ‘place’ (e.g. a particular community or geographical location) and prevents them from accessing employment in national labour markets. This paper, however, problematises the notion that ‘place attachment’ and ‘spatial mobility’ are necessarily mutually exclusive. Calling on data from a qualitative study of young people's aspirations in two distinctive regions of South Wales, UK, the analyses reveal that despite the largely localised ‘imagined futures’ of these young people they held very ‘high’ aspirations for professional forms of employment, which for some young people meant moving away from home and locality in order to achieve. The paper calls for a rethinking of how young people's aspirations are conceptualised both in government policy and academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we draw upon a narrative inquiry alongside urban Aboriginal youth and their families in western Canada; the overall goal of our inquiry was to understand their educational and schooling experiences. Shifting our focus from schools as the only place where curriculum is made, we draw on the conceptualization of children, youth, and families as also engaged as curriculum makers in homes and in communities and in the in-between places of homes and schools. In this paper we explore the multiple curriculum-making worlds of Lane and Donovan, two Aboriginal youth. As part of understanding the multiple worlds and relationships between, and intersections of, multiple worlds, we draw on Lugones' concept of world traveling. We contemplate the importance of understanding lives over time, in geographic places, and social contexts. We wonder how the worlds youth inhabit are shaped by institutional, social, political, and institutional stories, and how these larger narratives shape the ways in which we attend to the lives of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to the limited relevance of traditional labour market indicators for youth unemployment, researchers and policy-makers focus on an indicator known as not in employment, education or training (‘NEET’). The underlying assumption is that NEET indicates young people with a high risk of social exclusion. For political solutions, it is necessary to consider the heterogeneity of the NEET group. This paper examines the socio-structural attributes that characterise NEET youth in Austria, the main reasons for the NEET situation and whether NEET status, once assigned to an individual, is permanent or temporary. Latent cluster analyses identify seven subgroups of NEET youth, all of which face different challenges. The data source used is the Austrian Labour Force Survey (micro census) from the years 2008–2010, and young people between 16 and 24 years old are analysed. A panel data-set is created to analyse NEET permanence. Drawing on the identified reasons for a permanent NEET situation, this paper argues for more job and training opportunities that fit the needs of young people, especially those with illnesses. Finally, this study asks whether the definition of NEET should be adapted to exclude young mothers with care responsibilities who are not actively looking for a job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the adolescent female perspective on women's participation as leaders in society. Using a qualitative approach, the study outlined in this paper investigated this phenomenon through the use of student focus groups. Participants were students in their final year of schooling from secondary girls' schools located in Australia, with one school located in South Africa. This study found that students identified the patriarchal nature of leadership positions, women's possible lack of desire to hold a leadership position, and the impact of gender stereotypes as concerns. However, students were mostly positive with regard to their ability to overcome these issues in the future. It is recommended through the findings of this study that girls are given voice through their formal schooling in order to discuss issues of gender and leadership, and as a consequence, an awareness of issues concerning gender inequity may be created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a 'death' of class in popular and policy discourse, this paper argues that social class is still a major force at work in young people's lives, particularly in the context of schooling. We argue that young people's subcultural groups are classed, in the way in which they are constructed in discourse. Drawing on a data set of 68 interviews with white, middle-class young people in three different cities in England, we argue that class can be seen and felt in young people's constructions of the 'chav', where white, working-class young people's ways of being and doing in the context of schooling, stand in stark contrast to the normative middle-class subject, and become pathologized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data drawn from the European Union Labour Force Survey 2000 Ad Hoc Module on School to Work Transitions to explore the influence of gender and social background (measured in terms of parental education) on young people's educational and early labour market outcomes across 12 European countries. Our results show that social background is strongly related to the level of education achieved while gender is found to have a stronger effect on the field of study selected. Countries vary in the extent to which gender and social background affect young people's outcomes. Gender differentiation in labour market outcomes reflects the nature of the welfare regime, being more pronounced in familial and conservative systems. Social inequality in educational attainment and early labour market outcomes are less marked in Finland and Sweden, reflecting the combination of less differentiated educational systems, mass higher education and social-democratic welfare regimes. In contrast, social inequality is more marked in the Eastern European countries, due partly to their highly differentiated educational systems but more notably to rapid changes taking place in post-communist systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To access education and training or look for work many rural youth, as young as 15 or 16 years, are encouraged to leave home and move to urban centres where there are greater opportunities. The aim of this paper is to highlight the particular impact rurality and changing social policies have on young rural women in the process of leaving home. Drawing on qualitative data generated in a three-and-a-half year longitudinal study of 26 young women growing up in small rural communities in northern Tasmania, this paper examines the housing careers of these young women to identify the benefits and risks associated with various independent living arrangements. This discussion helps to put some biographical flesh on the bare bones of demographic patterns of leaving home. It also highlights some of the complex interconnections between decisions made in one arena of life, such as leaving home, and consequences in other areas, such as looking for work or continuing with education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews cross-national research and policy debates about pathways between education and work, and draws on this review to reflect on the utility of the pathways concept itself. It identifies three main uses of the concept: to analyse the relative size and role of general education, school-based vocational education and apprenticeship, respectively, in an effective transition system; to examine the relationships and interconnections between pathways; and to consider how pathways can reflect the perspectives and priorities of individual young people and enable them to manage and control their own itineraries. Pathways can be useful as an organizing concept linking policy and research, provided that the metaphor is used with precision and its unintended meanings are avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to the post-2001 British policy shift from multiculturalism to community cohesion is the assumption that the disturbances were the product of youth identities that were shaped by ‘parallel lives’ and that there is a need for increased contact between communities. There is evidence to support the notion that many young British people, particularly in areas of significant ethnic physical segregation, favour distinct and racialised identifications, although the positional and situational nature of youth identification is sometimes understated. This paper draws on research techniques based on word association, carried out in Oldham and Rochdale, two towns in Greater Manchester often portrayed as epitomising ethnic segregation. The research provides some evidence regarding ways in which young people view the ‘other’ in relation to their self-identification, and also how they perceive their town and area. The research suggests that the factors structuring the development of identifications and categorisations are complex and multilayered, but that, although there is evidence of negative views of ‘out-groups’ held by both White and Muslim young people, the latter group have more positive place attachments and attitudes towards multiculturalism. The findings suggest that the context in which contact between groups takes place may be important for the success of enhanced contact as a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have seen a significant growth of research studies concerned with young people living in rural places with a strong focus on social and economic inequalities. In these studies, equality has become a key organising principle in understanding young people's lives in settings that offer continuous social, economic, and cultural disadvantages. Drawing on a qualitative research study in a rural school in Victoria, Australia, this paper seeks to examine the ways in which young people make sense of and negotiate the challenges they encounter in their communities and in their post-secondary school transitions through two dominant discourses of equality: liberal egalitarianism and neoliberalism. These competing discourses conceptualise equality and approaches to addressing disadvantage differently. The former places the emphasis on a social approach underpinned by the idea of equality of opportunity, while the latter focuses on an individualised approach based on the notion of merit. I draw on a radical egalitarian critique by Iris Marion Young to reveal limitations from both positions and to show that adopting an individualised approach rather than a social one has significant implications for the way youth and institutions frame not only post-secondary school transitions and rural disadvantage but inequality as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is an important and defining element in young people's lives. When conceived properly, it has the potential to transform opportunities and life chances. It hardly comes as news that in recent times the authors have witnessed the inappropriate intrusion into education of notions of school reform that while they might arguably be in the national economic interest, are highly questionable from the vantage point of young people. In this paper, the authors present some counter-narratives from a group of young Australians who have ‘disengaged’ or been ‘shoved’ out of school and who resumed learning under a very different set of conditions to those that exiled them. Through the comments from young people, the authors construct an account of how they came to be categorised as ‘at-risk’ in the first place, what this pathologising meant to them, and how an alternative approach that invested them with power enabled a more positive identity formation to occur. Notwithstanding its altruistic intent and more humane approach, the authors remain unconvinced on the larger question of ‘re-engagement to where?’ for these young people, and whether the fundamentals have been sufficiently unsettled to enable them a different trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between the experiences of parents and youth within racialized immigrant families to gain a better appreciation of intergenerational dynamics, drawing on interviews and preinterview surveys with 47 immigrant youth and their parents. Our thematic analysis of data explores the diversity of families' immigration experiences, labor market challenges for parents, shared family discourses of sacrifice and opportunity, and differences in youth responses to the high expectations of parents. We conclude that the life course transitions experienced by parents have important consequences for their children; immigrant youth feel a strong sense of intergenerational obligation, and this obligation is problematic for a significant minority of youth. Our qualitative findings thus temper the optimistic picture of these youth presented in large-scale studies of their aspirations and attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A person's identity is shaped by one's life experiences. Aside from family, school forms the major backdrop of the everyday experiences of children and plays an important role in shaping identity. This paper examines education and the development of identity among school-age migrant children enrolled in Beijing's schools. Marginality is the theme running through this analysis. The marginalisation of migrant children in Beijing is defined and sanctioned by the outdated household registration system that excludes them from enrolling in public schools. Many attend segregated migrant children's schools. Even after the government has relaxed its rules to allow migrant children into the public system, they suffer discrimination based on their low social status and rural origin, each reinforcing the other. These experiences shape their sense of identity. They want to stay in Beijing but know they are not accepted. They call themselves as members of their home regions, but would have difficulty fitting into their home communities and have no intention of living there. This study helps us understand how school interactions shape the identity of migrant children not only in Beijing but of the estimated 20 million migrant children in China's other major urban centres albeit with some differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I compare socio-economic experiences and community perceptions expressed by socially and economically disadvantaged young people with those of university students living in the same post-industrial community. I consider markers of distinction among these young people in relation to their family and educational experiences. I also critique overlaps in their perceptions of their community with specific focus on recreational infrastructure and physical environment. Youth insights suggest that the downturn in the economy has had an impact on their families' ability to provide the traditional kind of support expected of working-class families. The resulting gaps in local cultural and social capital influence school successes and ultimately, economic life chances for youth in already marginalized communities. Despite varying life chances, all participants held similar perceptions of their community. Their shared views beg the question: can collaborations among fractions of young people strengthen efforts to advocate for social and economic security and comfort for all youth within and across disenfranchised communities? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of giving young people a say in casework has received much attention in recent years. Little attention, however, has been given to the question of how to educate youth workers as a way of ensuring young people's involvement in such professional practices. This paper reports on a model for preparing youth workers for participatory casework practice. It is a curriculum grounded in a collaborative-based pedagogy. Such educative frameworks that invite student's participation align with effective theories and models on youth participation. Educators interested in developing youth work students' capacities to engage in direct practice that encourages young people's involvement in decision making need to 'practise what they teach' and teach in ways that encourage students' active participation. The teaching and learning activities engage students with rationales of youth participation and what we know about young people being given a say in casework. The possible influence of personal experiences and broader social and economic arrangements are explored. And a scenario-based activity invites students to assess the implications of current knowledge, biography and context, to identify challenges and opportunities for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship education was introduced as a statutory subject in England in September 2002 with the aim of promoting civic and political engagement. However, whilst education is undoubtedly a powerful socialisation force, it is not the only factor that is likely to influence young people's civic and political participation. Political science theories regarding adult participation highlight the role of variables such as socio-economic background, political efficacy, individuals' assessments of the costs and benefits of participation and interest in politics. The questions therefore arise as to how much citizenship education can influence young people's participation above and beyond these other factors and whether this is more likely if a school adopts a particular approach to the subject's delivery. To answer these questions, this paper draws on data from the nine-year Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS), and more particularly from its 2004-05 survey of 13,646 English students aged 13-14. Structural equation modelling is used to examine students' intentions to participate and ascertain the relative contribution that education and other factors make to young people's intentions to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper picks up from Bynner's recent critique of the current formulation of emerging adulthood as presented in his recent exchange with Arnett in the Journal of Youth Studies (2005, volume 8(4) and 2006, volume 9(1)). It pays particular attention to the exclusion processes in education and the workplace that prevent young people in some socio-economic contexts from experiencing the developmental processes presumed to be of benefit to all 'emerging adults'. In addition, an alternative to Arnett's psychological, free-choice model of emerging adulthood is offered that identifies the social and economic conditions that have produced the prolonged transition to adulthood. We argue that this hiatus in the life-course, which is increasingly referred to as emerging adulthood, can be better explained in terms of changing economic conditions leading to a lowering of the social status of the young that is contributing to increasingly precarious trajectories, and in terms of the decline in the social markers of adulthood associated with the individualization process. When these structural conditions are examined, it appears that Arnett's model 'begs the question' about emerging adulthood (i.e. takes for granted the very thing under contention), and mistakes the coping mechanisms of many young people for freely chosen options to delay their entry into adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in Australia are entering the sex industry as a pragmatic response to increasing education costs and a reduction in government income support. This paper examines the lived experiences of a group of 40 young women, all post-secondary education students, working in the Melbourne sex industry. Their experiences suggest that while the Australian Government continues to implement ‘user pays’ reforms to the education sector, sex work will feature more dominantly as a ‘normal’ form of employment for students seeking to obtain a higher education. This does not suggest, however, that student poverty leads to criminality, but rather that there is a growing rift between what is considered legal ‘mainstream’ employment and what is considered acceptable ‘legitimate’ employment by young people themselves. This ‘tension’ emerges in the choices and decisions of the young people in this research: the fragmented, multiple identities they assume as they take on many different roles and responsibilities, exercise selective and strategic disclosure practices, are negatively positioned by others, and are active in making choices and decisions to reach their goals and imagined futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a report on a research study that investigated perceptions of 16-year-old to 20-year-old young people of their spiritual well-being. The participants came from a range of backgrounds in a regional city in Victoria, Australia. Indications of spiritual well-being were seen as expressions of a deep level of connectedness to the human and non-human world and, also, a sense of purpose in one's life that promoted self-esteem. The findings have implications for the development of programmes at primary and secondary levels that address the spiritual dimension in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to produce information about how the educational and labour market situation of Finnish young people has changed during the last decade. The empirical findings are based mainly on information gathered from official statistics and different registers based on census data and also from annual labour force studies made in the years 1990-99. It is argued that there are now more risks and insecurities connected with young people's labour market status in Finland than before. Simultaneously, the connection between education and employment has become more apparent. Although even those with the highest educational qualifications cannot be sure about their forthcoming success in their working life, those with the minimum of education have great difficulties in getting jobs. In the worst situation, it means that those with the fewest resources will drop out of the competition during their first school years, while the others suffer from constant pressure to 'make it' in education and work in order to succeed in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the educational decisions of rural youth in Australia. Rural/urban differences in educational expectations and outcomes; Complexities of youth transitions; Suggestions for educational policy.

Recent policy responses to the risks entailed in 'fast-track' school-work transitions have targeted careleavers and young people identified as 'not in education, employment or training' (NEET). However, this approach has been criticised as diverting attention away from the fragile circumstances of others who may receive little parental or service support. We draw on a qualitative study with young people affected by parental substance use to further contribute to this discussion, highlighting the way in which policy constructions of both transitions and parental substance use combine to obscure the fragile circumstances of many of these young people. Notably, policy constructions of parental substance use have focused on young children rather than young people. Consequently, many young people whose family circumstances were not identified while they were young children face unsupported transitions without service or family support. We argue that policy construction should take a broader, longer-term perspective in both areas: moving forward towards transitions in the case of parental substance use, while also recognising the continuing effects of previous gaps in social support provision in the case of transitions policy. We further illustrate how policy construction in all areas may benefit from listening to young people themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools worldwide have long engaged in various forms of 'war education'. In China, an extensive 'Patriotic Education' campaign and an expanded 'National Defense Education' curriculum have led to an increase in youth-oriented military programs in the 2000s. Previous work on the implementation of these programs in Chinese schools has mostly focused on urban elite youth, while overlooking the reception of these programs by non-urban, non-elite populations. The present study addresses this issue by examining youth perceptions and experiences of military training courses in urban and rural high schools. Drawing on the analysis of Chinese publications in the 2000s and on data from field interviews with students of different backgrounds, the study finds that youth military training constitutes a contentious program. Although the Chinese government promotes the program as crucial for military strengthening and the fostering of a patriotic spirit, PRC academic and media writers provide alternative rationales for the program, which at times undermine the logic of government articulations. Meanwhile, interviews with youth document divergent attitudes and even resentment towards the program, especially among city youth. This finding casts doubt on the assumption that military-training courses necessarily contribute to the increased 'militarization' of Chinese youth and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[While many children living in out-of-home care aspire to complete higher education, research from the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset suggests that very few are likely to achieve this goal compared to children living at home. These findings suggest (1) children from out-of-home care residing with a carer (i.e. children in foster care) are one-third as likely than their peers to progress to higher education, (2) transitioning to university is associated with parental education and employment, however, children from foster care are less likely to be living in homes with characteristics associated with transitioning to university, (3) post-school education for foster care children may be improved by placement with parents who have achieved a Year 12 equivalent or higher education status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the dynamics of emerging adults' partnerships across the school-to-work transition. While previous research studied the impact of the school-to-work transition on cohabitation entry only, we focus on partnership disruption, accounting for cohabitation as a parallel process. We examine whether partnership volatility is tied to enrolment in education, which would imply greater opportunities for relationship and identity exploration, but also postponed family formation, for those enrolled in education longer. Moreover, we study the impact of non-employment after education on the stability of early partnerships. The analyses are based on PAIRFAM, a survey on relationship dynamics for young cohorts in Germany. Focusing on western Germany, we study partnerships that began during education. In a three-process model, we examine partnership disruptions and transformations of non-cohabiting partnerships into cohabitations, comparing the impact of educational enrolment, employment, and non-employment while controlling for selectivity in entering employment. We find that young men's transition from education to employment stabilizes their partnerships. However, partnership instability is higher for young men with phases of non-employment after education than for those who are employed. In contrast to men, the school-to-work transition has no effect on partnership stability for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the NEET phenomenon in a longitudinal perspective, by examining the case of Italy, a country experiencing one of the highest and increasing NEET shares in the EU. We exploit the longitudinal sample of the 2008-2011 EU-SILC data, providing self-declared information on individuals' educational and occupational status on a monthly basis for 4 years. Firstly, we propose a classification of individual histories in education, employment and the NEET states. According to our estimates, more than 40% of the Italian young people report being NEET for at least 13 months out of 48, and more than 10% for (almost) the entire period. Secondly, we examine the composition of the NEET groups and draw a long-term NEET risk profile for individuals from different sociodemographic groups. Thirdly, we examine the longitudinal histories by distinguishing between unemployment and inactivity spells. Our findings show that the NEET phenomenon among Italian young adults is largely an issue of unemployment. The only exception is represented by Italian older females with children, the majority of which portrays themselves as inactive. Still, a sizable portion of these women define themselves as being mainly 'unemployed' instead of 'performing domestic tasks', indicating an unsatisfied wish or need to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This register-based study examined the importance of education on labour market participation among young refugees in Sweden. The study population consisted of unaccompanied (n = 1606) and accompanied refuges (n = 4142), aged 23-26 years in 2006-2010, after 7 years of residence in Sweden. Native Swedish, aged 24 years (n = 347,255) constituted the comparison population, with intercountry adoptees (n = 6689) as an alternative reference group. Gender-stratified multinomial regression models indicated that unaccompanied and accompanied male and female young refugees had higher risks of being in insecure work force and NEET compared to native Swedes with comparable levels of education. However, young refugees and intercountry adoptees with primary education had similar risks of poor labour market outcomes. The educational differences within each group concerning the risk of being in insecure work force were comparable. With the exception of unaccompanied females, secondary education seemed to be less protective against being in NEET among young refugees compared to native Swedes and intercountry adoptees. We conclude that while young refugees face employment disadvantages, education has the potential of mitigating poor labour market outcomes in this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NEET concept has become widely used internationally since its emergence in the UK almost two decades ago. This article reviews the adoption of the concept in two extreme contexts in terms of NEET rates, youth opportunities and youth welfare: the Nordic countries and South Africa. The article discusses the situations of NEET young people in the two contexts, and how the concept is used in the wealthy and relatively homogenous Nordic welfare states and in relatively poorer and racially divided South Africa. While the concept has been problematised in different ways in Nordic youth research, it has been more readily accepted by South African researchers. We argue that, in both contexts, the NEET concept can be taken as an invitation to look beyond individual life situations and biographies, and to focus on how structural forces such as the political economy shape young people's lives. The NEET concept provides a way of discussing changing opportunity structures and how global social forces such as globalisation and neoliberalisation shape young people's lives in different contexts. The NEET concept is useful in comparative youth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]