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Snakes & Ladders: In Defence of Studies of Youth Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Robert MacDonald
  • Paul Mason
  • Tracy Shildrick
  • Colin Webster
  • Les Johnston
  • Louise Ridley

Abstract

Although enjoying a period of renewed government policy interest and favourable research funding, youth studies has recently come under considerable intellectual attack, much of it from within. A common theme is that the major conceptual approach of most British youth research over the past twenty years - the sociological study of youth transitions - is not helpful in approaching ‘the youth question’. The paper locates these recent critiques in terms of the development of ‘two traditions’ of youth research in the UK; a development which has served to separate structural and cultural analyses and so to limit the theoretical potential of the field. A recent qualitative study of young people growing up in Teesside, Northeast England is then discussed. Close analysis of the biographies of two of its participants are used as the basis for a reconsideration of the nature of transitions amongst ‘socially excluded’ youth and a discussion of some of the limitations of recent critiques of youth studies. The paper argues that the sort of research, methods and analysis employed here provide one example of how interests in the cultural and structural aspects of youth might be integrated. It concludes by reasserting the theoretical value of a broad conceptualisation of transition in understanding the social, economic and cultural processes that define the youth phase.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert MacDonald & Paul Mason & Tracy Shildrick & Colin Webster & Les Johnston & Louise Ridley, 2001. "Snakes & Ladders: In Defence of Studies of Youth Transition," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 5(4), pages 1-13, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:5:y:2001:i:4:p:1-13
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.552
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sumberg, James & Anyidoho, Nana Akua & Chasukwa, Michael & Chinsinga, Blessings & Leavy, Jennifer, 2014. "Young people, agriculture, and employment in rural Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 080, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. James Sumberg & Nana Akua Anyidoho & Michael Chasukwa & Blessings Chinsinga & Jennifer Leavy & Getnet Tadele & Stephen Whitfield & Joseph Yaro, 2014. "Young People, Agriculture, and Employment in Rural Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-080, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. McLaughlin, Janice & Coleman-Fountain, Edmund, 2014. "The unfinished body: The medical and social reshaping of disabled young bodies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 76-84.

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