Alan France

Falling somewhere between childhood and adulthood, ‘Youth’ is a key period of transition. It can be difficult to define and make sense of this period in one’s life.However it is categorised, young people face a number of challenges and issues growing up in today’s world. From the pressures created by social media to the increasing precarity of employment, the major social, cultural and economic developments of our time are each impacting this period of the lifecourse in myriad ways. Youth Sociology helps readers to understand how such changes factor into the experience of being young today, and illuminates the realities of the world in which young people live.Embedding perspectives and insights from a wide range of disciplines beyond sociology, this authoritative new textbook will be incredibly useful for all students of youth.

Falling somewhere between childhood and adulthood, ‘Youth’ is a key period of transition. It can be difficult to define and make sense of this period in one’s life.However it is categorised, young people face a number of challenges and issues growing up in today’s world. From the pressures created by social media to the increasing precarity of employment, the major social, cultural and economic developments of our time are each impacting this period of the lifecourse in myriad ways. Youth Sociology helps readers to understand how such changes factor into the experience of being young today, and illuminates the realities of the world in which young people live.Embedding perspectives and insights from a wide range of disciplines beyond sociology, this authoritative new textbook will be incredibly useful for all students of youth.

In this innovative book, Professor Alan France tells the story of what impact the 2007 global crisis and the great recession that followed has had on our understandings of youth. Drawing on eight countries as case studies he undertakes an in-depth sociological analysis of historical and contemporary developments in post-sixteen education, training, work, and welfare policy to show how the ecological landscape of youth has been affected. He maps the growing influence of neoliberalism as a political strategy in each of the countries, showing how, after the crisis, it is accelerating the reconfiguration of institutions and practices that are central to the lives of the young. This book is essential reading for students of youth studies, sociology and policy, seeking a greater understanding of international public and social policy in relation to the youth question.

This book addresses the recent marginalisation of class theory in youth sociology. The authors argue for the importance of reinstating class analysis as central to understanding young people’s lives in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Their analysis recognises that in periods of social change, class relationships and processes can and do get reconfigured, but by drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, they show that class, while being dynamic, remains core to shaping the everyday lives of young people. Students and scholars across a range of areas including the sociology of youth, sociology of education, social work and social policy will find this book of interest.