Trajectories from youth to adulthood: choice and structure for young people before and during recession

Edwards, Rosalind and Weller, Susie (2013) Trajectories from youth to adulthood: choice and structure for young people before and during recession. In, Helve, Helen and Evans, Karen (eds.) Youth and Work Transitions in Changing Social Landscapes. London, GB. The Tufnell Press, pp. 82-94.

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with what the economic recession and rising youth unemployment in the UK might mean for young people’s trajectories into adulthood and work transition. It is based on a qualitative longitudinal study that has been tracking young people’s lateral relationships over the past four years or more. A series of case studies of young people’s biographical negotiations are used, drawing on Brannen and colleagues’ four-fold transitions typology which highlights the structural forces underpinning the choices young people are able to make. The chapter argues that young people enter a period of economic recession with prior resources and particular trajectories already in play in their lives. Thus, for the young people in this study, rather than recession bringing about a changed or fractured pathway into adulthood, it is providing a certain set of conditions for embedding particular, pre-existing trajectories.

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Contributors

Author: Rosalind Edwards

Author: Susie Weller

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