The Youth Question

Paper Summary:

This paper analyses aspects of continuity and change with regards to the question of youth. It first asseses the issue in the context of previous theories regarding 'youth culture' and asks whether such ideas remain relevant in an era of high modernity, 'individualization' and 'risk society'. It further relates these arguments to aspects of continuity seen most clearly in continued social class reproduction.

From the Paper:

"The concept of "youth" could be viewed simply as an age category (usually between thirteen and twenty five). In some ways, viewing youth in this way is a useful starting point as it immediately provokes the concept of a heterogeneous group of people bound together only by their age. Thus, as Jones has noted; it is "misleading to emphasize the qualities or otherwise of "youth" per se, since the young are neither a homogenous group nor a static one". Youth must therefore be conceptualized not in terms of the inherent characteristics of young people themselves, but in terms of the construction of youth through social processes such as schooling, family and the labor market which is inextricably linked to the specific ways in which young people engage with these institutions in relation to their circumstances."

More papers on The Youth Question:

• Analytical Essay # 9298 : "Testament of Youth"
• Analytical Essay # 148078 : "A Look at Interventions for Delinquent Youth"
• Essay # 86316 : "The "Scared Straight" Approach"

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