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This paper explores how Australian youth climate activists experiencing ecoanxiety overcome obstacles and frustrations in their climate action initiatives by exercising meaningful political agency in the marketplace. It briefly outlines how their concerns about climate change inaction galvanised and continue to drive their engagement in climate politics, reflecting fears and anxieties about their own and the planet’s future. Despite this growing interest and engagement in climate politics, however, the efficacy of political consumerism as a strategy, particularly among young people, remains largely unexplored [Micheletti, M. 2010. Political Virtue and Shopping Individuals, Consumerism, and Collective Action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan], with limited research on their consumption habits and behaviours [Kyroglou, G., and M. Henn. 2022. “Young Political Consumers between the Individual and the Collective: Evidence from the UK and Greece.” Journal of Youth Studies 25 (6): 833–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2021.2012139]. Thus, this paper investigates how young activists in the study, despite their vulnerabilities and experiences of ecoanxiety, endeavour to address structural imbalances linked to climate change through political consumerist initiatives. Utilising in-depth interviews and a photo-elicitation exercise with ten participants aged 18–35, the 2022 Australian study examines youth activism and the interplay between political consumption, views on hope and sustainable lifestyle choices. It reveals that environmentally conscious consumption patterns such as buycotting, boycotting, engaging in discursive actions, and embracing lifestyle politics that young activists engage in serve as a source of hope for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context for this paper is a shift in the way citizens engage in democratic processes which has received increasing attention in the literature. Building on previously conducted research, this paper contributes to the conceptualisation of citizenship activities in terms of young people below the voting age from rural communities. Based on reviewing current research, seven emerging contexts that can assist with exploring young people's citizenship activities are proposed, namely unofficial, individual, glocal, sporadic, online, issues-based, and justice-oriented. These contexts were translated into a framework which is introduced and explored in this paper. To explore this framework, focus groups (n = 26) and a qualitative questionnaire (n = 106) were conducted with young people aged 13–16 from a secondary school in Germany. The proposed framework extends previous conceptualisations of emerging citizenship contexts by looking beyond citizen types and taxonomies to explore the spaces, modes, goals, and the frequency of participants' citizenship activities. Results indicate that the proposed framework was useful in exploring multiple emerging citizenship contexts. Focus group and questionnaire participants were particularly engaged in glocal, unofficial, sporadic, and issues-based contexts and to a lower degree in individual, online, and justice-oriented contexts. A key challenge is achieving conceptual clarity around the seven contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw on the outcomes of a place-based scenario planning project in Melbourne's (AUSTRALIA) inner northern suburbs that was titled COVID-19 Recovery Scenarios for Young People in Melbourne's Inner North. As part of that project, we conducted video interviews with 53 young people during what became an extended second lockdown period in Melbourne as the city dealt with a resurgence in COVID infections. In this paper, we present the stories of three young people – Rosie, Ash and Astrid – that are illustrative and inclusive of the uncertainties and hopes that young people in Melbourne's inner north gave voice to. We situate these young people's stories in what Rosi Braidotti (2019) has identified as the convergence of the fourth industrial revolution and the sixth mass extinction. Our aim is to situate the pandemic, the social, cultural, economic and political responses to the pandemic, and the challenges and opportunities that this public health crisis produces for young people's health and well-being, their education, training and employment pathways, and their sense of belonging, connectedness, even community, in the broader, unfolding crises of global capitalism, of earth systems, and of biodiversity that is heralded by the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the creative group and individual interviews with young people aged 11–18 years old in England and Wales in 2018, this paper assembles data that addresses the changing nature of intimacies in young people's digitally-networked lives. Informed by Lauren Berlant's work (2008, viii), it maps how platforms such as Instagram and YouTube circulate certain 'fantasies of the good life' that orient young people towards heteronormative future imaginaries. It argues that publicising intimate relationships on social media works to both reify and unsettle fantasies of monogamy, marriage and domesticity by highlighting their inherent precarity. It also illustrates how smart technologies such as the virtual personal assistants Alexa and Siri reconfigure the good life fantasy. Moving beyond simplistic moral panics that seek to discipline young people's digital intimacies, this paper aims to engage with the nuances of young people's digital sexual cultures. Overall, this paper argues that attending to this complexity can enable practitioners to better attune to and support young people to navigate contemporary digital relationships and sexuality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the social reproductive labour of one group of young people - university students who hold hostile jobs. Engaging in paid work while studying full-time has become common for university students. Despite the desire for high-quality work-integrated learning opportunities, many working undergraduate students face precarious working conditions in service sector jobs. Full-time undergraduate students at two Canadian universities who engaged in term-time paid work participated in focus groups, life mapping, interviews, and audio diaries. The data revealed that more than half of the students experienced hostile work that is characterized by precarious conditions, intensified working pace, erratic scheduling and discrimination. We explore three kinds of social reproductive labour done by young working university students in hostile jobs – the labour of navigating their job conditions, the labour of juggling work and study, and the labour of striving for control and well-being. Our analysis suggests the need to broaden the recognition of the work of working students and to ensure better quality work for young people. Conceptually, the paper is informed by feminist political economy, particularly debates on social reproductive labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth political disengagement continues to be a major issue facing contemporary democracies that needs to be better understood. There is an existing literature on what determines youth participation in terms of socio-demographic factors, however, scholars have not given much consideration to the macro-level determinants. In this paper, I outline an empirical analysis of what determines political participation among young people using the Eurobarometer 375 survey data from 28 European Union countries. I argue that while socio-demographic factors are crucial for youth political participation, context matters in shaping levels of political participation among young people. The results from the logistic regression analyses indicate that democratic maturity influences patterns of political participation among young people in the EU. The results show that youth engagement in different modes of political participation varies significantly across distinctive democracies, where individuals situated in established EU democracies are more likely to be politically active. The findings raise fresh concerns about existing levels of young people's engagement in politics in advanced and new democracies. This paper also contributes to the comparative research on young people's participation in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based mentoring (SBM) programs are seen as a way of preventing the disengagement of young people from education. However, existing research points to a complex relationship between SBM programs and improved engagement outcomes. There is therefore a need for greater understanding of the pathways through which SBM leads to outcomes for young people. This paper addresses this complexity, examining the nuanced ways in which SBM may lead to positive outcomes for young people. Drawing on the qualitative perspectives of 15 young people engaged in an Australian SBM program, the findings point to two types of pathways to outcomes. First, direct pathways go to the heart of young people's engagement, by prioritizing educational performance and achievement as the focus of the mentoring relationship. Second, holistic pathways see mentors seeking to influence young people's broader thinking about the value of education, their wellbeing and their communication skills, to in turn address issues that may otherwise present barriers to young people's engagement. The paper discusses the policy implications of the findings. It highlights the importance of acknowledging and measuring incremental steps to improved educational engagement, in a context of young people experiencing non-linear and complex pathways to engagement outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminally exploited young people are often found with tangible evidence of criminality, challenging traditional notions of the victim offender dichotomy. This paper presents criminally exploited young people’s narratives regarding their lived experiences in Wales. It offers a nuanced perspective of victimhood by drawing on their personal accounts of how they were offered a false sense of hope by individuals who manipulated their unmet needs and limited resources to garner their trust. Young people appeared resigned to exploitative relationships and violence because of their powerlessness and lack of opportunities but rationalised their involvement rather than acknowledging themselves as victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in residential alcohol and other drug (AOD) services build meaningful relationships with workers during their stays. In this paper we use an ethics of care framework to explore what young people said about care, how it was delivered and what they valued about it. Drawing on three waves of longitudinal interviews conducted with 38 young people over 12 months, we discuss our findings according to two overarching themes – opportunities enabled by care and limits to care. Young people’s descriptions highlight the potential for care to challenge stigma, enhance self-worth and wellbeing, enable respectful staff-client relationships, and foster positive relationships crucial for maintaining engagement. At the same time, young people described challenges around providing both individual and collective care, coproducing care in structured environments, and facilitating care as young people transition out of residential services. These findings shed light on the delicate balance between care provision and contextual constraints within AOD settings. This emphasises the need for ethical relationships built on clear communication, mutual respect, and ongoing forms of care. Recognising the value of care work, especially in transitions out of acute treatment services, is essential for reshaping funding approaches to prioritise meaningful and continuing care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates young people’s mobile practices of ‘making do’ as they negotiate work, study and play in the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on Singapore, and drawing on original empirical data derived from online journaling by twenty participants, the paper elaborates on their practices of ‘making do’ when working from home. Using an interdisciplinary approach spanning youth, cultural and architectural studies, the paper considers new formations and appropriations of domestic time and space. Critically situating the home as a hybrid domestic characterised by its porous public-private space and multiple-disjunctive time, ‘making do’ is evident in a range of spatial tactics: from occupying temporary mobile spaces to altering physical spaces with objects and devices, to time-sharing, to developing practices that affirm and contest ascribed social roles. Through switching objects and roles in the hybrid domestic home, our study participants not only created new mobilities within the immobile constraints of the pandemic home, they also transformed the spatial and temporal norms of study, work and play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people and their housing conditions are closely linked, since housing determines whether an individual can lead a smooth transition from dependence to independence. Nevertheless, young people across many societies face growing problems in achieving this transition, which can be attributed to rising house prices and the lack of affordable alternatives to homeownership. Moreover, young people are likely to have vastly divergent experiences and outcomes depending on their tenure. This paper explores these issues in relation to young people in Beijing. The paper argues that the housing issues in Beijing have distinct local characteristics. Drawing on a unique dataset of 83 housing stories, this paper explores housing differentiation and experiences amongst young, promising middle-class people in Beijing. This paper attempts to answer the following research questions: What factors contribute to young people's access to homeownership in light of the rising house prices in Beijing? How is homeownership differentiated by different classifications? The answers to the research questions are the key to understanding the differentiation of homeownership amongst young, promising middle-class people in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth studies has called for new ways of thinking about transitions for young people. This paper argues for new ways of understanding times during transition, particularly for young people with complex support needs. Young people (16–26 years) with complex support needs are those who experience multiple forms of social disadvantage, and who depend on siloed services to support them. Complex support needs are created by the intersection between a person and a complex system of services including education, health, disability, health, mental health, homelessness, youth justice and child protection. In this context, transition has been understood as a physical movement between and within separate services. Using the arts based method of body mapping with 31 young people with complex support needs from three Eastern states of Australia, this paper reports on how young people themselves experience transition. Young people identified three distinct times during transition that resonated with existing literature on critical moments, liminal periods and meaning making times. However, these times were not sequential or singular, nor were they a reflection of service transitions. Instead, this paper contends that times during transition were not as much about moving forward, as about simultaneously living with complex and chaotic pasts and presents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a ‘palette’ of interdisciplinary methods to explore young people’s alcohol consumption practices and experiences in the hyper-diverse suburban locations of Chorlton and Wythenshawe, Manchester, UK. This paper contributes to literature on the emerging theme of hyper-diversity by exposing the heterogeneity of young people’s drinking experiences, with a focus on bars, pubs, streets and parks. I demonstrate how young people’s inclusion and exclusion from such spaces is bound up with the traditional identity markers of age, gender and class, alongside more performative, embodied, emotional and affective aspects; for instance, the atmospheres, smell and soundscapes of particular drinking spaces. More than this, the paper enhances understandings of hyper-diversity by elucidating the ways in which young people’s everynight alcohol-related mobilities and diversity interpenetrate each other. Through analysing young people’s alcohol consumption practices and experiences, I show how young people are hyper-diverse in terms of their alcohol-related lifestyles, attitudes, and activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of qualitative research examining young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health highlights the profoundly social nature of young people’s sexual lives. Nineteen peer reviewed published papers were identified for inclusion. Findings reveal efforts made by some young Indigenous Australians to control their sexual lives, mitigate risk and maintain their sexual health. The review identified factors which are conducive to sexual health risks and vulnerability, including incomplete knowledge about STIs and safer sexual practices; gossip and ridicule concerning sexual activity and its consequences; damaging expectations about male prerogatives with respect to sexual relationships; limited inter-generational communication about sexual health issues; inadequate school-based sexual health education; and tensions between Indigenous and biomedical explanations of sexual health issues. Future research priorities include a focus on young Indigenous people in cities and towns across Australia, and in regional and remote settings in New South Wales and Victoria; understanding how Indigenous cultural values support young people’s sexual health; young men’s sexual and service-based practices; and the experiences of same-sex attracted and gender diverse youth. This research would inform the design and delivery of culturally safe and acceptable sexual health services and programmes, underpinned by an understanding of factors in young Indigenous Australians’ everyday sexual lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Legal definitions of sexual consent emphasise 'freedom' as central to valid consent; however, power inequalities may complicate freedom. This paper discusses findings from a two-stage focus group study with young people (aged 13–23) in England exploring the implications of power inequalities for sexual consent. In Stage 1, 77 participants explored and ranked the types of power inequalities they felt were common within young people's sexual relationships, with age, gender and popularity being identified as the most common power inequalities. In Stage 2, 43 participants discussed power inequalities using scenarios based on the Stage 1 findings and considered their implications for sexual consent. Thematic analysis of the data produced two themes: powerless and powerful roles in consent communication and power inequalities implicitly constrain freedom to consent. Consent communication was constructed as a unidirectional process whereby those with more power initiate, and those with less, gatekeep. Such roles require deconstruction to position consent as mutual and actively negotiated by partners. Further, since power inequalities were seen to place implicit constraints on freedom to consent, we advocate for an explicit exploration of power and privilege within Relationships and Sex Education to equip young people to recognise, challenge and negotiate these constraints. [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]

In the UK, transition to university has become regarded as the 'normative' next step for young people following completion of their post-16 education. This paper examines the views of 23 young people who, despite being suitably qualified to progress to university, were anticipating alternative pathways and options. The paper illuminates the centrality of young people's 'learning identities' in their decisions and the role of wider social contexts in structuring their opportunities to embark on higher education. Their 'learning identities' informed their views on the value of higher education and other options in securing future employment. The implications of these findings are highly significant in the context of congested and competitive UK labour markets in which obtaining a degree has become, in very many contexts, the bare minimum for securing employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and economic impacts of COVID-19 have been devastating for many, and collectively young people generally fared worse than older adults, with the impact amongst young people also being highly uneven. Most studies on this topic focus on Global North contexts, with experiences in the Global South being less well understood. Focusing on young people in Nepal and Indonesia who were especially exposed to the fallout from the pandemic (in part due to their occupations), this paper analyzes over 1400 weekly diary entries from 100 respondents written across four months in the first half of 2021. Participants recall increasingly precarious individual and family situations due to pandemic-related livelihood upheavals and insufficient access to social protection. Amongst diverse ‘coping strategies’, many turned to debt to smooth fluctuating incomes – leading to both financial and social obligations and forcing sometimes life-altering decisions such as leaving education and moving into risky work. Spiralling indebtedness may have consequences for livelihoods across young people’s life-courses; with futures mortgaged to survive precarity at the peak of the Delta wave of COVID-19. Looking ahead, policy makers should reconfigure disaster responses and social protection with a youth-lens to ensure a robust, fair and sustainable recovery from future crises, mitigating inter-generational scarring effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, one fifth of individuals aged 15–24 are 'not in employment, education or training' (NEET). NEETs have become an increasingly important notion in international debate, although criticisms are directed at its all-encompassing nature and lack of concern with the intergenerational, gendered, social and systemic inequalities that influence young people becoming NEETs. Prevalence of youth NEETs is especially high in Latin America, with women disproportionally affected. Brazil has one of the highest absolute numbers of NEETs in LAC. This paper uses data from the last Brazilian census to examine contextual drivers of NEETs in Brazil, and to critically assess broader implications for policy. In Brazil, states with higher coefficients of social inequality and levels of criminality are more likely to have higher proportion of youth NEET. Globally, social inequalities associated with gender, race and crime are pervasive drivers of young NEET status. Latin American youth are in a particularly disadvantageous position. Policies that aim to overcome social exclusion and marginalisation of youth need to focus on systemic drivers of the NEET condition among vulnerable subgroups of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the work of Rein and Schon (1993. "Reframing Policy Discourse." In The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, edited by F. Fischer, and J. Forester, 145–166. London: UCL Press., 1996. "Frame-Critical Policy Analysis and Frame-Reflective Policy Practice." Knowledge and Policy: the International Journal of Knowledge Transfer and Utilization 9 (1): 85–104), we explore the ways in which 'young people', 'vulnerability', 'risk', 'prevention' and 'prevention practice' were defined and framed by practitioners engaged in the design, delivery and commissioning of drug prevention interventions for young people in contact with the criminal justice system. We argue that practitioners describe their work in terms of both a preventative frame – based on a 'deficit' model – and a transformative praxis frame, more in line with an increasing shift towards 'positive youth justice' where practitioners aspire to actively involve the young person in a process of change. The implications of those, often competing, frames are discussed in relation to the development of prevention approaches and the challenges in designing drugs prevention for this group of young people. The paper is based on interviews and focus groups with thirty-one practitioners in England and is part of the EU funded EPPIC project (Exchanging Prevention Practices on Polydrug Use among Youth in Criminal Justice Systems 2017–2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'You've gotta befriend them but not be their friend' is how one youth worker thoughtfully described the secret to successful youth practice. This paper draws on experiences of youth workers in the United Kingdom to consider how the growth of digital technologies comes to be negotiated and articulated in professional practice. Situating these experiences alongside young people's accounts, this article highlights a distinction between young people's relationship with the digital and adult perceptions of youth and technology. The aim of this paper is to consider what factors contribute towards this divide and where adult perceptions come from, if not from the experiences of young people themselves. The article then goes on to discuss the potential consequences of the presence of technology and discourses surrounding the digital for youth worker's engagements with young people in professional practice. Overall, this article argues for the enduring relevance of youth workers and physical youth centres in a digital age and joins several scholars in critiquing the chronic under-investment in youth workers and provision in the UK and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which young people use digital platforms develop with experience, and are guided by changing understandings of what they should – and should not – be doing online. As such, young people continually develop tacit rules and understandings that guide their platform participation. While based on social interactions with peers and other online contacts these rules are also technologically situated through the architecture of the platform. Based on research with Australian teenagers, this paper explores the ways in which Facebook shapes the communicative practices of young people, and how these were experienced and interpreted by them. Using the platform as a framework for the study demonstrates that some aspects of the Facebook architecture were particularly significant in structuring socialities, particularly: notifications and login for establishing habitual digital practices and norms; the prominence of images to (re)present identity; and the use of metrics (i.e. 'likes' and 'friends') to negotiate identities and relationships. Each of the participants initiated a range of strategies and rules to negotiate the ways in which the technological and the social were experienced through the platform. The paper concludes by considering the dominant values and social relations implicated through Facebook – and how they often reproduce dominant offline values and power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant debates and digital upskilling strategies in Scotland have been long underpinned by the notion that engagement with technologies can transform young people's lives. This paper offers a critique of such dominant understandings and contributes to the scarce research on the impact of technologies on disadvantaged young people's life chances. It reports on qualitative fieldwork exploring everyday lives, transitions and technology use amongst 22 NEET-identified Scottish young people aged 16–24, drawing on thinking tools from Bourdieu. Findings show that participants followed 'accelerated' transitions towards vocational pathways, whilst technologies played a liminal role in making occupational choices. Furthermore, processes underpinning the post-16 transitions policy field were found to strongly shape the young people's trajectories, directing them towards the least valuable options in terms of work and training. Concurrently, uncertainties about how to navigate the realm of work and perform the self in relation to the labour force constituted a common feature of participants labouring subjectivities and these were reflected in the ways they used technologies while looking for opportunities. However, even when the young people acquired digital employability skills, these had little impact on their transitions as the old social divisions were a much stronger influence. [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]

In the UK, there has been growing concern about young people’s understanding of sexual consent, with the views of young people themselves often lost in academic and educational policy debates. However, the focus on high rates of sexual violence has meant a lack of attention on the everyday negotiation of consensual heterosexual activity, leading to assumptions being made regarding young people’s lack of understanding of sexual consent. This paper emerges from a wider study of over 500 young people which sought to uncover their understanding of the issues. Drawing on data from workshops and the open text responses to an on-line survey the findings presented in this paper show that the majority of heterosexual young people understood the complexity of sexual consent as an embodied process, which can be difficult to define, talk about or practice uniformly. This complex understanding, in which sexual consent is a continuum rather than a dichotomy, has implications for sexual education initiatives. We argue that it is only by providing a closer understanding of how – within consensual sexual activities – young people understand and enact sexual consent through a range of embodied communication strategies that education surrounding sexual assault will become meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing from a study of young university students in Australia, France and the U.K., homo promptus represents the authors' effort to trace how young people are positioned within discourses of higher education and employment to provide a conceptual shape to emergent characteristics of their otherwise diverse lives. We suggest that homo promptus is: entrepreneurial and strategic; plans adaptively for the future while living life in the short-term; not tethered to a single place; permanently in 'situational' mode and lives in waithood. We also argue that overlaying the figure of homo promptus is a complex affective combination of optimism, pessimism and anxiety evident in our interviewees' narratives. We then briefly attempt to reflexively locate ourselves as youth researchers in relation to the study from which this paper is drawn, outlining certain caveats and limitations of presenting another limited figure of youth, as discussed previously by Threadgold (2019) in this journal, but one which seeks to bring some clarity to the sometimes messy work of youth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's participation has become a cliché in western democracies. In the case of Fiji, it is a novel concept, not because young people have not participated before but because they are exposed to new and different ways of involvement. This paper is one of the earliest attempts to explore young people's understanding and experiences of participation in Fiji. It is based on data drawn from an exploratory study conducted with a select group of young people in Suva, Fiji. Forms of young people's engagement although diverse are dominated by the traditional discourse of participation represented in 'performance and responsibility' and tend to be represented in the media and policy circles. This paper shows that young people are not bound by these conceptions but talk of participation as experienced in the hybridized settings of their everyday reality. The study offers a window into understanding young people's participation in Fiji and suggests that a deeper appreciation of this facet of their lives can be achieved with an emphasis on participatory talk with and an exploration of spaces where young people are constantly negotiating the traditional expectations of being young, being dutiful citizens and self-directed individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 'Rust Belt' city of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, discourses of young people's enterprise and innovation provide a counter-narrative to the prevailing material and symbolic consequences of industrial decline, job losses, and the growing insecurity of employment and income. GT Magazine is a weekly, large circulation magazine in Geelong with a significant focus on the activities and aspirations of enterprising young people. In this paper, we examine, by utilising techniques of content analysis and discourse analysis, the particular ways in which young people's innovation and enterprise are framed and enacted in GT Magazine. Our analysis reveals that 'youth' and 'enterprise' are, in GT Magazine, given an embodied form that is powerfully marked by aestheticised, normalised enactments of gender, class and race. In doing this work, we make productive contributions to three key themes in contemporary youth studies: new work orders and the youthful self as enterprise; the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of affective labour in these new work orders; and the emerging spatial turn to examine young people's embodied, place-based experiences of employment and enterprise. We seek to make problematic the sense that solutions to multiple disruptions and crises in capitalism and the environment are to be found in young people's enterprise. Particularly when that enterprise is given form in ways that are aestheticised, gendered, classed, individualised and responsibilised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on empirical data from qualitative interviews, this article explores young adults' everyday experiences of 'logging in' and their accounts of their engagement with social media platforms, in particular Facebook. By doing so, it shows how 'logging in' can turn into feelings of being 'locked in' – both in relation to personal data-mining and expectations of participation. The paper highlights the complex ways in which young adults responded to these feelings and negotiated connection and disconnection on social media platforms by deploying tactics of limitation and suspension. For example, in order to regain control of their time and negotiate their relationships, young adults tactically used Facebook Messenger's previews to bypass read receipts and temporarily suspend connection. Using de Certeau's distinction between 'strategy' and 'tactics', the article argues that although young adults managed social media platforms on an individual level (by deploying 'tactics'), their understandings and negotiations of the platforms were significantly shaped by the platforms' designs and features, by the strategies of the corporations owning and operating them as well as embedded within the asymmetrical relations of power of platform capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the ways in which social isolation is constructed in institutional and public imaginaries. It examines the discursive devices that produce hikikomori subjectivities, with a particular focus on the existence of an enduring deviant construct. Despite largely existing in the private sphere, hikikomori are positioned as residing outside of the prevailing system of social relationships and as such are perceived as a threat to social order. Persistent psycho-medical and idiosyncratic cultural depictions of hikikomori continue to obscure those who are doing the defining. Such portrayals also re-assert enduring normative expectations concerning the social, civil and economic participation of young people. Through an interdisciplinary approach that blends sociological and cultural critique, this paper challenges the dominant discourses framing hikikomori, at the same time underlining the ways in which these limiting discourses act upon the self by reinforcing an individualised subjectivity, masking the network of institutions and cultural discourses that mediate this process. We assert that there needs to be a broadening of the concept away from the atomised individual to one that situates hikikomori within a social and cultural context, having significant implications for identity and notions of personhood in contemporary, digital Japan and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now in operation for 12 years, Facebook comes to serve as a digital record of life for young people. With significant parts of their lives played out on the site, users are able to turn to these profiles to reflect on how their use of Facebook has come to constitute a life narrative. In this paper, we report on findings from qualitative research into sustained use of Facebook by young people in their twenties in Australia and the UK. We focus on the ‘editing’ or re-ordering of narratives that our participants engage in while they scroll back through their years of disclosures – and the disclosures of others – that make up their Facebook Timelines. We present our analysis through three arenas (employment, family life and romantic relationships) subject to what we argue is a reflexive re-ordering of life narratives. We argue that Facebook profiles represent visual manifestations of Giddens [1991.Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press] reflexive project of the self, that serve not only to communicate a sense of self to others, but that also act as texts of personal reflection and of growing up, subject to ongoing revision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the question of how young people today evaluate the Second World War today and how this ‘difficult past’ determines their political attitudes. Furthermore, the channels through which the current young generation in Europe is informed about the events dating back to the first half of the twentieth century (e.g. parents and grandparents, schools, the media) are examined. The theoretical basis chosen for addressing these questions is the work of Mannheim (1928) on the formation of successive generations, and the theories of collective memories and identities of Eisenstadt and his followers. Our empirical evidence comes from a transnational comparison of young people’s memories of this difficult past in Denmark, Finland and Germany. From a historical perspective a comparison of the three countries is particularly interesting as they played different roles during the Second World War. The evidence highlights the different perceptions of history among youth and points to the absence of a common European understanding of what happened between 1939 and 1945. The empirical evidence comes from a research project (2011–2015) funded by the European Commission and covering 14 European countries. Its main focus has been on present-day young people’s perceptions of history and politics (MYPLACE = Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts of power and agency have become increasingly prominent in the youth studies literatures and related research. A focus of the research to date has been an examination of how a better understanding of young people's lived experiences can reveal possibilities for young people's agency to emerge. Despite increased interest in the term agency, much less has been said about how the concept is defined and recognized in research with young people, including what the concept may entail but crucially, how the term is linked to and underpinned by the related concept ofpower. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of power and agency as utilized in research with young people. The discussion that follows identifies the possible ways in which different theoretical positions shape our understanding of how power and agency are investigated and how these understandings inform the ways we interpret young people's perspectives and actions as holding potential for ‘agency’. Drawing on recent empirical examples, we consider how varying interpretations of power and/or agency shape not only the ways in which young people's agentic experiences are theorized (and the related ontological and epistemological assumptions these positions imply) but also the presumedeffectsof that agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the previous seven years the application of a social generation paradigm or ‘theory’ has gained increasing currency as a method in analysing young people's relationship with the life course. Whilst not a new concept or approach its resurgence and reconfiguration to ‘new’ times has seen some writers positioning it as a ‘new orthodoxy’ or ‘consensus’ within youth studies. In this it is seen as providing a conceptual framework that better helps us understand the complexity of circumstances and conditions that shape youth identities in late modern society. In this paper we examine and explore the underlying assumptions and claims that are made by those advocating the social generational paradigm, raising questions and seeking further clarification on a number of key themes. We accept youth studies needs to move beyond ‘old models’ that define and understand social context as a simply a tension between ‘structure or/and agency’ or as a ‘flavour’ to social action. To conclude therefore we propose the need to have an approach that is ecological and both accepts ‘social change’ and ‘continuity’ as critical parts of the life course, one that recognises the nature and influence of power and social reproduction, especially for different social classes, in shaping the experience of being young. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous research on youth drinking has brought out important features in young people's time- out cultures as and how they relate to the current neo-liberal social order with its expectation of self-governing individuals. However, previous research has not sufficiently considered cultural variations on the meaning of binge drinking for young people; in particular, there have been very few studies dealing with under-aged drinkers. This paper considers the applicability of binge drinking as ‘controlled loss of control’ in Northern and Southern European contexts by comparing young people's perceptions of binge drinking in Finland and Italy, which have conventionally been considered as representing sharply contrasting drinking traditions. The data consist of 28 focus-group interviews conducted at schools among 15-year-old pupils (N= 148) in Helsinki and Turin. In both countries, binge drinking was seen as risky, but it was associated with social norms that defined the limits of successful or failed drinking experience. Cultural variations were found especially in the ways self-control was defined with regard to drinking regulation. However, in both data the competence of the drinker and self-control was emphasized, thus contradicting the interpretation of binge drinking as loss of control or a time-out from the neo-liberal social order. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies that examine the news engagement practices of school students usually examine children or teenagers, and this precludes an examination of the similarities and differences between these groups. In 2020, we carried out a nationally representative survey of the news practices and experiences of young Australians aged 8–16 years and we compared the results for those aged 8–12 years and 13–16 years. The findings demonstrate that family is the most common source of news for both groups. Nonetheless, there is a significant shift that takes place as children enter their teen years, whereby they become far more likely to get news online from social media, news websites and apps. The impact of this shift is not straightforward, however. Contrary to our expectations, this development does not appear to increase the degree to which young people say news is important to them and it is not strongly correlated with their self-reported affective experience of news. Overall though, we find that the method young people use to get news and their affective experience of news engagement are significant predictors for their motivation to want to act on or respond to news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying has typically been defined and studied separately from other forms of gender- and sexuality-related harassment and violence such as dating and relationship violence and sexual harassment, arguably obscuring the complex interrelations between these phenomena. This article is based on an EU-funded project which explored young people's understandings and experiences of sexual bullying (bullying related to gender and/or sexuality). Data collected via 41 focus groups with young men and women (N = 253) aged 13–18 across five European countries (Bulgaria, England, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia) were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants highlighted intersections between bullying, dating and relationship violence and sexual harassment. They also drew upon notions of consent to determine whether and when certain actions constituted bullying. We argue that applying this lens of consent to young people's peer relationships illuminates the extent to which bullying (like other forms of gender- and sexuality-related harassment and violence) is culturally situated and embedded within hierarchical gendered power relations. We therefore advocate that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and anti-bullying initiatives treat consent as a 'common thread' in discussing and challenging a range of gender- and sexuality-related forms of bullying and harassment within peer relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authenticity has loomed large as a value from the late twentieth century onwards. While an enduring concern in the study of subcultural boundary negotiation, the relations between authenticity as a broader ideal and characterisations of youth have so far been underexplored. Here I draw on interviews with young Pagan Witches (14–19) in Auckland, New Zealand, to detail the stereotype of the 'Teen Witch': a sanction or defining Other used by both adult and young members of the religion to delineate authentic membership. While the presumed features of the Teen Witch reflect tensions within Witchcraft in the early twenty-first century, I illustrate how they also rest on broader characterisations of young people, including susceptibility to media influence and affiliation with commodified products. These associations position the teenaged Witch in opposition to pervasive understandings of authenticity, a consonance that may imply a connoted charge of inauthenticity to popular characterisations of young people outside of the religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the disability related identity experiences of young people with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Using a narrative inquiry methodology, 25 young people between 18 and 29 years participated in in-depth interviews. Their narratives highlighted growing perceptions of difference and how the negative actions and attitudes of a few people in their past continued to shadow their current lives. Influenced by perceived negative attitudes of others to disability and their own internalisation of these, the young people conceptualise a binary of normalcy and difference, finding themselves liminally positioned, somewhere in between, and mostly seeking to avoid a disability association. In new social situations, the young people reported engaging in disability identity management work, while often resisting having disability as part of their identity. These can be conceptualised as acts of resilience and of resistance in the face of oppressive social forces. There is a powerful counter narrative in a sub group of the participants who were actively engaged with peers with experience of disability. For these young people, the inclusion of disability within social identities became possible. The findings of this study have implications for our understandings of managing identities in young lives, particularly for those in marginal positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how young people construct drinking and non-drinking as a choice by drawing on the concept of reflexive habitus – how individuals in contemporary society habitually negotiate choices around consumption, lifestyle and identity. We explore accounts of non-drinking choices through semi-structured interviews with 50 young people aged 16–19 from Melbourne, Australia, who either abstained from alcohol or drank minimally. Participants were encouraged to discuss how they had decided to either not drink or drink only lightly, and why they thought consumption practices among young people have changed. Their accounts centred on themes of (a) reflexively managing risk and health through non-drinking, (b) attempting to perform autonomy and self-expression through drinking choices, and (c) cultural politics: thinking reflexively about alcohol's role in society. Participants were conscious that consuming alcohol might influence their wellbeing, social functioning, and their sense of individuality, and were critical of constructions of alcohol as an expected feature of socialising. The growing pluralism of lifestyle choices and increasing structural and discursive pressures on young people may have encouraged a more reflexive habitus, in turn necessitating active choice-making about consumption practices that appears to be at odds with the cultural logic of heavy drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article considers pedagogical practices and learning, students' assumed self-governing, and the need for educational support in relation to students' wish to receive proper teaching and guidance and to become well educated. The analysis is based on an ethnographic study in one vocational school in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. The research interest is in how the narratives of the students and the episodes documented in the field recount the ethos of the current vocational education reform. We ask: (1) How are pedagogical practices organised and how do the students recount their studies, teaching and support for learning?; (2) How do the narratives on both education and working life practices relate to the discourse on self-governing? The research data consists of the fieldnotes on 27 school days and transcribed interviews and group interviews with the students, teachers and other educators. This study shows that in the school's practices, the education policy objectives of ideal student as self-governing and autonomous are in conflict with the lack of teachers' time and attention for the students. The analysis makes evident the significance of educational support and the school's social aspect. It also suggests that emphasising self-governing does not meet the everyday life of young people and educators, and it actually produces resistance in the school and workplace contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of studies on age-related patterns of political activism in Malaysia, specifically on young people's patterns of political participation relative to their elders, and in relation to the rich literature that has developed in Western democracies. By analysing survey data from Wave 6 (2010–2014) of the World Values Surveys (WVS), this study aims to investigate the differences in political engagement between younger and older people in Malaysia, including new repertoires outside the mainstream politics, by addressing the question of whether young Malaysians are more active in political activities compared to older groups. The findings conform to the expected patterns in the literature that young people are less likely to participate in conventional political activities than their respective elders. However, we find no significant differences for unconventional political participation. The study further shows that demographic indicators such as the levels of education, gender and ethnic group belonging do not appear to be linked to the age gap between youth and their elders in political activism. As such, the study provides evidence that young people in Malaysia are less likely to be politically active than their elders and that this is not clearly attributable to the socio-demographic factors analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young men tend to be constructed as being at low risk of harm and able to extract value from sexting, compared to young women. Drawing upon findings from a qualitative study exploring practices and perceptions of sexting among 14–18 year-old participants in southeast England, I discuss the meanings and norms surrounding young men's sexting practices. I outline how these meanings and norms underpinned perceptions regarding the value available to young men through sexting. Young men were not, however, equally able to extract value and social capital through sexting, and participants discussed examples of the social shaming of young men who sext. I discuss how young men took up diverse positions with regard to masculine heterosexuality within youth sexting culture, in which they reworked and challenged the ideals and assumptions inherent to 'hegemonic masculinity'. I draw two conclusions: firstly, it should not be assumed that young men are inherently able to gain value through sexting; secondly, narratives of risk and shame may mean that while young men distance themselves from sexting, gendered assumptions and inequalities regarding bodily and sexual expression remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the opportunities afforded by Ursula Le Guin's allegory 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' for thinking about the role of youth work in modern cities and societies that are deemed to be successful but at the same time fail some young people. Using Melbourne and Australia as examples and following Le Guin the case is made that the prosperity of 'liveable' cities and 'lucky' countries coincides with the neglect and mistreatment of some young people. The same cultural, economic and political practices and processes that produce the beauty and abundance also produce the inequalities and hardships, and these include policies inspired by neoliberalism, processes of individualisation, and utilitarianism. Unlike the ones who walk away from Omelas youth workers can stay and fight adversity and injustice, however alleviating problems young people experience is more complex than it is often thought to be. One reason this is the case is because youth work is entangled with the same range of ethical, emotional, intellectual, political, and economic circumstances that generate thriving places and disadvantaged young lives, and inadvertently youth workers can reproduce the challenging and limiting conditions faced by some young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular commentaries lament that reforms to the financing of Higher Education (HE) in the UK will operate as a significant deterrent to HE participation amongst students from less advantaged backgrounds. This view of debt as a deterrent is powerful and exists not only at a societal level, but also, as we show, is present in schools. Our data reveal, however, that these 'debt commentaries' play out very differently across schools according to the nature of their catchment and the sorts of views staff hold about pupils in relation to their fear of debt. Furthermore, students' views on debt largely contradict these popular 'debt-as-deterrent' narratives and instead are often characterised by acceptance, ambivalence and at times positive orientations towards the prospect of debt. These findings vividly illuminate both the regional and institutional specificity of staff and student decision making in relation to 'debt', hence they have substantial implications for HE funding policy specifically and debates about widening participation in HE more generally, where ensuring greater equity in the scope of choices young people have when it comes to choosing a university is a pressing concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The school-to-work transition in Spain has become much more difficult and extended than before, with many young people today experiencing long periods of temporary employment, unemployment or inactivity. This article investigates the main socio- demographic characteristics of Spanish young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs). It also aims to compare them with their non-NEET counterparts in terms of social capital and family background. Analyses were based on a representative sample, corresponding to the year 2016, of Spanish young individuals ages 18-35 years (n = 1.826). All analyses were stratified by gender and age group. Overall, the Spanish NEETs had lower educational levels, were mainly unemployed and married, except for NEETs between 18 and 24 years, who were rather inactive and single. They also experienced previous unemployment, had more unemployed friends, and were coming from poorer family backgrounds in comparison with their non-NEET counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness among young people remains an ongoing critical issue across the globe, despite numerous targeted policies attempting to address the issue. Research demonstrates that the way policies represent social problems influences policy solutions. Drawing on Australian policy, this research investigates how policy discourses construct homeless young people, and how these constructions influence the support services developed. The study involves a critical discourse analysis of Australia’s most recent national inquiry report on homelessness among young people. The analysis suggests that the values and assumptions present throughout this policy largely reflect neoliberal political contexts, emphasising the importance of individual and community responsibility. However, there exists a disconnect between policy expectations of young people’s autonomy and the construction of their capacity for autonomy. This suggests that young people require greater levels of participation in policy development to create an effective balance between their own need for self-determinism and the support they require to transition out of homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at exploring the representations young people and adults attribute to the concept of adulthood in order to analyse the effects these ideas have on their reciprocal perception and recognition. In so doing, it draws upon data collected through a grounded theory study, which has been conducted in Italy involving young people and adults in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Data show that an outdated traditional model is still used by both the samples to determine who is an adult and when the adult status is acquired without discussing its validity in front of a changed social scenario. An evaluative function is added to traditional transitional markers of adulthood, which are used by both young people and adults to accuse each other of being ‘not mature enough’. A discrepancy between the shared ideal representations of adulthood and the actual possibility the two generations have to meet those social expectations in their lives emerge. The implications of these results for youth transitions to adulthood are discussed in the light of the high level of intergenerational inequality characterising the Italian context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research explores young people’s experiences of open access youth work and identifies what they consider to be its value. The detailed analysis of the data, achieved through focus groups, revealed that ‘association’ was a key driver of engagement. It also highlighted the support system the youth club creates amongst the peers. The young people also valued the relationships they form with youth workers and acknowledge the support and guidance offered to them which better enables them to reflect on and navigate their complex lives. Young people also valued the acceptance they feel from the community developed in the youth space. It provided comfort and reassurance when at times they do not feel like they fit in anywhere else. This research offers a significant counter to the tide of current targeted youth work policy which is resulting in the demise of a provision which, judged by the findings from this research, appears to be highly valued by, and beneficial to, young people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analysed young people’s leisure activities in order to identify their leisure habitus, discover how they combined activities into leisure patterns, and examine how leisure patterns were socially structured. We argue that the effects of age, gender, and language on how young people’s leisure patterns are structured are mediated by social class. We found that leisure practices could be classified in terms of three habitus: the frequent leisure habitus, the cultural activity habitus, and the social vs. entertainment habitus. The different combinations of these three leisure habitus by young people resulted in four patterns which we refer to as social, omnivorous, entertainment, and religious leisure patterns. The association of leisure patterns with indicators of social position suggests that, as predicted by our theoretical framework, age, gender, and language effects are diminished once we take into account the mediating role of social class. Young people’s leisure practices are therefore socially differentiated, with young immigrants forming a vulnerable group that should be the particular focus of youth leisure policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]