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Youth studies an introduction
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Summary: Youth Studies (Andy Furlong)Chapter 1: Youth and the life course
What is youth?
Youth = socially constructed intermediary phase that stands between childhood and
adulthood: it is not defined chronologically as a stage that can be tied to specific age ranges,
nor can its end point be linked to specific activities, such as taking up paid work or having
sexual relations.
Youth is a broader concept than adolescence, which relates to specific developmental phases,
beginning with puberty and ending once physiological and emotional maturity is achieved,
and it tends to cover a more protracted time span.
For Hall, the physiological changes associated with adolescence meant that the experience
was essentially traumatic: characterized by storm and stress.
o Adolescence was a period which involved risky behaviour, mood swings and conflict
with parents. The brain’s frontal lobe cortex, which plays an important role in
judgement, does not mature fully until young people are in their early or late twenties.
As a result, young people may exercise poor judgement and are prone to risky
behavior. Also, young people’s experiences, well-being and relationships also have a
powerful impact on development and on decision-making processes.
The sociological tradition in youth research has always placed a strong emphasis on the way
in which experiences are central to definitions of youth as they link to patterns of dependence.
Youth, for them, is a period of semi-dependence that falls between full dependency that
characterizes childhood and the independence of adulthood. Defined in this way, it is clear
that youth is constructed differently across time and between societies. In some societies
young people become independent at a relatively young age, while in others dependency can
last well into their second decade of life, and even beyond.
In some respects the identification of a clear youth stage in the life course has become
increasingly problematic as a result of changes in modern societies. Young people spend
longer in education, enter full-time employment at a later stage and can remain dependent for
greater periods of time. Moreover, many young people have non-linear sets of experiences in
which events occur in a non-traditional order. As a result of the growing protraction and
complexity of youth as a stage in the life course, researchers have begun to argue we must
recognize a new phase that they have termed ‘young adulthood’, ‘post-adolescence’ or
‘emerging adulthood’.
The United Nations defines ‘youth’ as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 with all UN
statistics based on this definition. The UN also recognizes that a useful distinction can be
made between teenagers (i.e. those between the ages of 13 and 19) and young adults (those
between the ages of 20 and 24).
Why study youth?
Unsurprisingly, the issues that engage youth researchers are frequently of great interest to
policy makers. Often researchers are attracted to a field of study because it is very topical and
stimulates widespread debate, although frequently they become involved because they harbour
doubts about the veracity of popularist explanations. The link between the policy agenda,
media concerns and the research agenda has been evident throughout much of the history of
youth research.
In terms of policy-related themes, two interlinked areas stand out particularly prominently:
crime and youth cultures (especially when they are regarded as having anti-social or criminal
tendencies or when their consumption habits suggest new markets to be exploited).
In youth research there has been a long-standing rift between what can be termed the
‘transitional’ and ‘cultural’ approaches. Those working within a ‘transitional’ perspective
have tended to focus on the relationship between education and work and the ways in which
social inequalities are reproduced as a part of the transition from youth to adulthood. Many
(but not all) of those working within a ‘cultural’ perspective have tended to focus on lifestyles
, Summary: Youth Studies (Andy Furlong)
and youth subcultures, especially those that are highly visible and challenge the cultural
standpoints of older generations.
It is important to study youth, because the points where young people engage with the
institutions that either promote social justice or entrench social division are significant points
of reference for every society. Hence, the study of youth is important as an indicator of the
real ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ of the political and economic systems of each society.
Youth and the life course
Lifecycle (earlier) = the individual’s journey through life is presented as normative and de-
contextualized. Key sets of experiences are closely linked to age-related stages in a
developmental process (experiences like leaving school, gaining full-time employment.
Life course (Glen Elder) = key principles are historical time and place, the timing of lives,
linked or interdependent lives and human agency in constrained settings.
In elaborating life course theory, Walter Heinz suggests that it rests on five principles:
o Each life phase affects the entire life course: life-span development
o Individuals actively construct their biography: human agency
o The life course is embedded in historical events: time and place
o Social circumstances and events influence transitions: timing of decisions
o Social relationships and networks contribute to the shaping of biographies: linked
lives.
Changes in emphasis:
o In the 1960s, work on youth transitions tended to have a strong physiological
underpinning with processes of integration seen in terms of clear routes leading to
occupational niches. Influenced by the work of Havighurst (1948) and Erikson (1968),
there was an emphasis on ‘growth task’ models in which young people’s routes were
linked to the successful accomplishment of a developmental project which resulted in
the establishment of a vocational identity.
o In the 1970s, with a rise in youth unemployment resulting in more complex
transitions, ‘routes and pathways’ became the favoured metaphors.
o By the 1980s, ‘trajectory’ became the predominant metaphor. Underpinned by
structuralist interpretations, the term implied that transitional outcomes were strongly
conditioned by factors such as social class and cultural capital and were therefore
largely beyond individual control.
o By the 1990s with the rise of postmodern perspectives, new metaphors were
introduced that revolved around the idea of ‘navigation’. Individual agency was given
much greater prominence, and transitional outcomes were increasingly linked to
factors like judgement, resilience and life management skills.
Here we can observe a move from functionalism to structuralism and from structuralism to
postmodernism, although of course changes in theoretical paradigms are never quite as neat as
this.
The key concerns of youth researchers have actually changed very little over the last 40 years
or so, although both the lived experiences of young people and the way in which social
scientists interpret them have. From a sociological perspective, the transmission of advantage
and disadvantage across generations has always been a key topic of interest.
Structure versus agency
One of the factors that has a strong bearing on young people’s experience relates to the
opportunities that are available at a given point in time. As a result their scope to exercise
agency might be restricted (unemployment little agency). Other factors also help shape the
contexts in which young people’s lives are lived: social policies and welfare regimes, for
example, may constrain opportunities, while the assumptions embedded in cultures can
promote agency or reinforce barriers.
, Summary: Youth Studies (Andy Furlong)
Implicit in the idea of pathways is the assumption that, while routes are structured by factors
such as gender or social class, there are various points at which people make decisions
regarding routes. In contrast, the idea of a trajectory suggests very limited scope for agency
(destinations can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy using information on origins). In
modern contexts, it is recognized that individuals make key decisions within contexts that
constrain choices. Therefore, Evens says that agency is bounded.
Biographical approaches attempt to represent consciousness and subjectivity, as well as the
objective restrains that shape individual lives.
The emphasis on reflexive life management in the navigation model is associated with
biographical methodologies in which individuals are asked to provide accounts of their lives
and to interpret sequences of events.
o From 1990 on, we went from a ‘normal biography’ to a ‘choice biography’.
o But, As du Bois-Reymond makes clear, the idea of a ‘choice biography’ does not
necessarily involve free choice; paradoxically, the freedom to choose may itself be a
constraint. Young people may not feel prepared to make choices or may find choices
blocked or constrained at times when they want to take action.
o Individuals are constantly revising and re-interpreting their biographical projects, it
does introduce a greater fluidity into the process and makes it increasingly difficult to
identify end points. There are no clear beginnings or finishing points of life stages.
Henderson: ‘adulthood does not exist, it has to be invented’
In Beck’s view, late modernity is characterized by a process of individualization whereby risk
permeates all aspects of life, and categories like social class become redundant (overbodig). In
these circumstances, young people find it increasingly difficult to identify others who
encounter the same sets of experiences as themselves, while lifestyles, attitudes and forms of
consciousness lose their association with social class. Therefore, individualization is a process
whereby agency takes precedence and structures assume a secondary position. In late modern
contexts, in all aspects of their lives, people constantly have to choose between different
options, including the social groups with which they wish to be identified.
The idea of generation
Perhaps surprisingly, it is relatively rare for youth researchers to use the term generation as a
way of distinguishing the experiences of a group of people born in a particular era from those
born in earlier or later periods.
Early theorists were primarily concerned with social dynamics and change and, in different
ways, generational groups were presented as agents of change or as associated with distinctive
forms of knowledge and consciousness. Comte’s position was that conflict between
generations ultimately led to social change as the conservatism of the older generation was
challenged by the younger age cohort. Comte failed to develop or elaborate these ideas and
Mannheim can perhaps be regarded as the first social scientist to fully engage with the idea of
generation.
o He suggested that groups of people who grew up at particular points in time tended to
share a set of formative experiences, develop common ‘modes of behaviour, feeling
and thought’ and a unique consciousness. The process of identifying as belonging to a
particular generation is conditioned through the way in which social change results in
the emergence of new experiences which, in turn, encourage the new generation to
challenge the values of the older generation. The pace of change is an important
precondition of generational consciousness (which is by no means inevitable), while
social, economic or political crises can represent a ‘trigger action’ which helps
promote an awareness of common interests, especially when the young person begins
the attempt to interpret the world through their own experiences rather than those
relayed to them indirectly through the experiences of significant others (age 17).
Dunham summarizes Mannheim’s generational theory as follows:
o Intergenerational continuity results from socialization into societal values by one’s
parents
, Summary: Youth Studies (Andy Furlong)
o When fresh contact occurs, those values are challenged by generational experiences
o The development of a generational consciousness results from this process
o Generational units are formed which become a political force for social change.
Mannheim’s ideas have been developed by some writers in the Marxist tradition in ways that
link directly to social, economic and political change. Feuer (1969), for example, regarded the
generational struggle as the driving force of history. This interpretation holds that changes in
the equilibrium between the material base and ideological superstructure are affected by youth
as key agents of change, and suggests that generational conflict equates to the idea of a
‘youth-for-itself ’, in much the same way that Marx had argued that capitalism would be
overthrown when the proletariat ceased to be a ‘class-in-itself ’ (klasse-an-sich) and became a
‘class-for-itself ’ (klasse-für-sich), as they came to recognize their common interests and their
inevitable conflict with the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Edmunds and Turner developed a sociological approach to generation, which they regard as
‘not sociologically interesting or fruitful’. The theory rests heavily on the idea that generations
are shaped by their exposure to traumatic events that have a lasting effect on their culture and
consciousness (uniting effect). They also recognize the link between a shared habitus, cultural
identification and the ability to engage in political action that promotes generational interests
and values. They also make a distinction between active and passive generations, with the
former actively shaping its cultural milieu: a condition that is explicitly linked to the presence
of traumatic events.
o Examples: war, economic catastrophe.
o ‘Active’ versus ‘passive’ generations, with the former actively shaping its cultural
milieu: a condition that is explicitly linked to the presence of traumatic events.
Baby-boomers = the generation born in the immediate post-war ‘babyboom’: typically 1946 to
1964. They grew up in a period characterized by relative economic affluence with
employment conditions being fairly stable.
Generation X = typically regarded as being born between 1965 and 1980. They experienced
the recession of the 1980s and 90s and came of age during the ascendancy of the ‘new right’
in a period shaped by the leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (Harsh
economic circumstances traumatic event active generation).
Generation Y/millennials/igeneration = people born between the 1980s and 2000. In contrast
to the rebellious and alienated nature of ‘generation X’, this generation is viewed as
optimistic, engaged and accepting of authority. They are viewed as team players who place a
premium on achievement both in the classroom and in the world of work (‘better than sex’)
o ‘Making some-thing of themselves’
A generation can be defined as a society-wide peer group, born over a period roughly the
same length as the passage from youth to adulthood, who collectively possess a common
persona.
For Howe and Strauss the characteristic of all generation can be reduced to one of four types:
o Prophets (baby-boomers): highly moralistic with strong core values that they
vigorously defend.
o Nomads (generation X): cynical and tough
o Heroes (millenials): conformist and highly motivated
o Artists (silent generation, 1925-1942): emotional and indecisive
While the use of generation as a concept through which we can understand the changing
experiences of modern youth has not tended to enjoy widespread currency in the social
sciences, there has recently been a debate as to whether the idea of generation offers
possibilities for theoretical advance. Wyn and Woodman regard the idea of ‘social
generations’ as providing a way of conceptualizing youth which overcomes the shortcomings
in the transition approach. This, they argue, portrays youth as a ‘developmental stage of life’
within a model based on linear progression from one status (e.g. school) to another (e.g.
employment).
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