Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession: Youth and Inequality in a European Comparative Perspective

Description

Long-running trends towards increasing inequality between the rich and poor across Europe have been exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath. As employment opportunities for young people diminish and as the welfare state is pulled back, pathways to adulthood change and become more difficult to navigate. Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession consists of a collection of papers by researchers from Britain, Norway, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Greece, locating young people’s transitions to adulthood in their national social, economic and political contexts. It explores young adulthood with reference to generational continuity and change and intergenerational support. With a cross-national comparative framework, this volume highlights the importance of variations in structural contexts for young people’s transitions. Bringing together authors across sub-disciplines such as the sociology of youth, family and kinship, class and inequality and life-course studies, Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession will appeal to academic social scientists as well as final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in fields such as political science, sociology, youth studies, social policy, anthropology and psychology; and a wider public readership. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations About the authors Acknowledgements 1. Understanding youth transitions in difficult times Introduction Youth transitions in changing social and economic contexts Youth studies and a contextualist life course approach across national contexts Note References 2. Youth research meets life course terminology: The transitions paradigm revisited Introduction Historical background The sociology of youth Merits of the transitions paradigm Other paradigms: complementary or competitors? Challenges for the transitions paradigm Tackling other life domains Critical life stages Conclusions References 3. Transitions from school to work in Norway and Britain among three family generations of working-class men Introduction A contextualist life course approach and the transition to adulthood Historical changes across the generations: education and employment Analysis of the cases Discussion Conclusions Notes References 4. How parents see their children’s future: Education, work and social change in England Introduction The restructuring of youth opportunity and constraint Research design Orientations and values relating to young adult children’s education and training in contexts of change Orientations and values relating to young adult children’s future life chances in contexts of change Conclusion Notes References 5. Biography, history and place: Understanding youth transitions in Teesside Introduction: Transitions Researching youth transitions and social exclusion: the Teesside Studies Growing up in Britain’s ‘poor neighbourhoods’: Research findings Explaining youth transitions in Teesside: biography, history and place Conclusion Notes References 6. Social inequality and the transition to education and training: The significance of family background in Germany Introduction Primary and secondary education in Germany Tertiary and non-tertiary education Continuities and change in the position of young people in Germany Conclusions Notes References 7. Youth transitions and generations in Portugal: Examining change between baby-boomers and millennials Introduction Changing transitions through time and place Class and context The singularity of Portuguese contemporary history Young people and the changing labour market Young people and sociodemographic change Generations and transitions Middle-class immersion in the crisis and perceptions of a changed future Working classes coping with the present with no expectations for the future Conclusion Notes References Sources 8. Young people and housing transitions: Moral obligations of intergenerational support in an Italian working-class context Introduction Intergenerational support in the Italian housing system: Leaving home in working-class contexts Methodology Practices of independence among young people and the role of parental housing support Ideas of ‘independence’ and ‘housing autonomy’ Negotiating parental housing support Conclusion Notes References 9. Young people, transition to adulthood and recession in Greece: In search of a better future Introduction The importance of transition in young people’s lives The crisis and its impact on Greek youth The methodology of the research The crisis in the eyes of young people Young people’s perceptions of Greek society Young Greeks’ emigration Conclusion Notes References 10. Kinship, community and the transition to adulthood: Geographical differences and recent changes in European society Introduction The basic statistical picture A pragmatic explanation: levels of assistance from the welfare state An enhanced statistical picture A circumstantial explanation: the move from farming to urban life Community building and the transition to residential adulthood Communities as regimes of reproductive control Concluding discussion: pragmatics, community and economic stress Notes References Index