NCJ Number
186391
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 165-183
Editor(s)
Kathryn G. Herr
Date Published
2000
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article explores paradoxical elements in the relationship between young people and society, arguing that researchers need to consider the distinctive circumstances of the post-1970 generation and that questions about how social structures and social divisions affect young people's life patterns need to recognize the ways in which young people respond to new realities.
Abstract
Research on young people offers important insights into social change processes. The particular dynamic emphasized in the article is the relationship between economic and political change and the perspectives of young people. The article focuses on changes in labor markets, employment practices, and the nexus between education and employment. Central to the argument of the authors is the idea that the post-1970 generation is distinctive because it has had to engage with economic and social realities that were unknown to the previous generation. The complexities of recent trends and patterns in young people's lives reveal new effects of social divisions, as well as the continuation of old effects. The authors believe that, if research on young people is to contribute to the shaping of contemporary public issues, the paradoxes of youth experiences will be most illuminating. Several key sociological questions have emerged within the paradox of the optimistic generation that lives in difficult times. These questions relate to social costs of the individualization of life experiences, how social inequality is patterned and mechanisms that sustain it, and the extent to which the nature of the post-1970 generation reflects fundamental social change in the constitutive basis of society itself. 44 references