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0 Background context:
0 - facts
0 - youth policy connections
0 Discussion
0 - transitions
0 - structures and agency
0 Conclusions
0 Challenges
FACTS: General characteristics of the lives of EU young people -
Broken Hopes of a Youth Generation? 0 In EU around 100 milj. 15-24 year olds 0 More education – less work – brain train 0 Around 15 % of 18-24 years old in the
EU have less than upper secondary education
0 Increasingly difficult labour market: Around 6 million young people are unemployed
0 1.5 million are in precarious jobs 0 NEETS 1/3 0 - the unemployment rate of young people
aged 15-24 almost three times higher than older ones
0 - 26 % of unemployed 15-24 year-olds and 35 % of unemployed 25-29 year-olds have been unemployed for more than 12 months
0 Greater risk of social exlusion and poverty: 1/3 of young people in the European Union are at risk of social exclusion
0 Young people´s well-being under pressure 0 Generational – intergenerational
solidarity
(Eurostat 2012, Youth in Europe A statistical portrait, 2009)
‘SOCIAL INCLUSION OF
SOCIALLY EXCLUDED
YOUTH: MORE
OPPORTUNITIES,
BETTER ACCESS, AND
HIGHER SOLIDARITY’
Policy review of the Youth Research Cluster on Social Inclusion by Dagmar Kuntsar and Helena Helve
Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities Programme (SSH) of the EU 7th Framework Programme
http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/social-inclusion-of-youth_en.pdf
Political challenge to Europe
New challenges Knowledge-based approach
Immigration, minority ethnic groups, different religious and cultural backgrounds, gender questions
How to work on problems and issues relevant to various kind of people themselves on a local, regional, EU and global level?
0 politicians and
decision makers
often lack
information about
the needs of the
potential interest
group
EU Youth Strategy
0 Council Resolution on a renewed framework for European cooperation in the youth field for 2010-2018, and ‘Europe 2020: empowerment of young people’s agency and for preventative initiatives against social exclusion.
0 ‘Youth in Action’ programme (2007–2013)
0 ’Encouraging new and effective forms of participation of all young people in democratic life in Europe (Council document 7060/19 May 2011)
0 The Commission in White paper “A new impetus for European youth (COM( 2001)” :
0 participation in the exercise of active citizenship;
0 enhancing the information and information services
0 promoting voluntary activations
0 encouraging greater understanding and knowledge of youth.
0 Open Method of Coordination:
The EU2020 flagship initiatives "Youth on the
Move" and "Platform against Poverty"
1. Promotion of citizenship and political participation (empowerment of the youth agency) will encourage solidarity between actors and the whole societies;
2. Integration of policies and their inclusive character: inclusive educational policies with social protection and inclusive labour force policies will improve the accessibility to education and labour market of the excluded youth groups;
3. Increase the formal support, protection and encouragement will open up more opportunities for social inclusion of the excluded youth.
Youth work
- non-formal learning
-promote social
participation and
responsibility,
-voluntary engagement
and active citizenship,
-strengthen community
building and civil society
at all levels
-provide opportunities for
the social inclusion
(European Report of the
Belgian EU Presidency Youth’
1/7/2010)
Differences in contexts
Regime types (Axel Pohl and
Barbara Stauber, 2009):
0 liberal transition regime in
the Anglo-Saxon countries
0 universalistic model of the
Nordic countries
0 sub-protective
Mediterranean countries
0 Central and Eastern
European countries
Global paradoxy:
in the northern hemisphere an aging population and a lowered birth rate, resulting in a relatively smaller youth population
in the industrialized countries lengthened education, part-time employment, and the corresponding lengthening of young people’s dependence on their parents and or the state extend the time of youth - western prolongation of youth
in the southern hemisphere a large population of children and young people, and a smaller proportion of older people
the category of youth is elastic
age is socially constructed, institutionalized and controlled in historically and culturally specific ways
Welfare Context: Young Finns Characteristics:
0 Free education in all levels
0 Independence quite early
0 Leave parental home at the age of 20
Ambivalence: 0 Educational and
professional choices quite late
0 Gab years 0 Enter the labour market
while studying 0 Working slows down
progress in studies – gives important work experience
0 Late begin of working life 0 Family life late - first child
at the age of 28 -29 0 (Helve 2013)
Youth and work transitions in changing landscapes (eds. Helve H & Evans K.,Tufnell Press, 2013)
Perspectives on employment transitions and wellbeing changes during economic recession -School to work transitions and wellbeing in a changing labour market John Bynner
-The assumption of adult roles in the U.K., the U.S.A., and Finland: Antecedents and associated levels of well-being and health Ingrid Schoon and John Schulenberg
-Finnish young adults’ financial well-being in times of uncertainty: Mette Ranta
-‘Agency vs. structure’: A view of youth unemployment during the current recession in Finland: Jaana Lähteenmaa
Biographical negotiations from youth to adulthood
Trajectories from youth to adulthood: Choice and structure for young people before and during recession: Rosalind Edwards and Susie Weller
-Inventing adulthoods: Young people growing up in Northern Ireland: Sheena McGrellis and Janet Holland
-Regional identities future expectations and work values: Arseniy Svynarenko
-From higher education to working life: Work values of young Finns in changing labour markets: Helena Helve
New career aspirations, life chances and risks
-Youth transitions and wellbeing: The impact of austerity on black youths living in urban ‘black neighbourhoods’ :Tracey Reynolds
-Academic burnout and engagement from adolescence to young adulthood : Katariina Salmela-Aro
-Gender differences in achievement and social strategies, areas of work life, and burnout at the early career stage : Hely Innanen and Katariina Salmela-Aro
-The role of school engagement in young people’s career development and mental well-being: Findings from two British cohorts: Helen Cheng and Ingrid Schoon
-Activating events’ in adult learners’ lives: Understanding learning and life changes through a retrospective lens: Karen Evans and Edmund Waite
Wider international perspectives on youth, working life and wellbeing
-Young adulthood in Australia and New Zealand: Pathways to belonging: Johanna Wyn
-‘Ring of fire or a puff of (commentators’) smoke?’: Youth, unemployment and transitions in Gauteng, South Africa: David Everatt
-School to work transition and youth views on labour in Japan: Tomokazu Makino
-Russian youth in the labour market: Education, employment, work transitions and well-being: Julia Zubok
-School to work transition in India : Vinod Chandra
Commentary: The importance of resources in work transitions in late-modern contexts: James Côté
Discussion about transitions:
0 a new developmental stage - emerging adulthood (Arnett 2000)? - critics
0 prolonged transitions to independent adulthood
0 social and economic conditions extended transitions
0 no free choice
0 YP in transitions dependent on social structural opportunities and individual resources and capabilities
0 Dependent on personal and family resources
0 Dependent on family and local opportunity structures
Discussion about agency and structures:
0 School burnout - depression and anxiety
0 negative school engagement and self-esteem
0 Childhood cognitive ability
0 adult career attainment and mental health and well-being
0 Short term – precarious work
0 self esteem, identity and well-being
0 Disadvantaged YP
0 cultures of ill health, poverty, poor housing, unemployment and family breakdown
0 Attention to experiences in the school system : a significant role in shaping later attainment and levels of health and wellbeing.
0 Attention to work life in the early career
0 In the transition to adulthood, employment important in everyday life: - income, well-being, self confidence and capability
The structure-agency model (Côté 2013)
Table 2: Factors influencing the chance of young people benefitting from
prolonged transitions to work and the likely education-to-work trajectories
Agentic resources
High Low
Structural
resources
High
++
slow-
track
–/+
mixed
Low
+/–
fast-
track
–/–
marginal
0 High structural and agentic resources – slow transition
0 High structural and low agentic resources – mixed transition
0 Low structural recources and high agentic resources – fast transition
0 Low structural and agentic resources – social exclusion
CONCLUSIONS: YP are not homogenous in their transitions and needs
0 GENERAL: structural obstacles
0 Labour market less stable
0 Jobs relocated to other parts of the world
0 Changes in education, the labour market and housing opportunities
0 Disadvantaged neighbourhoods - cultures of ill health, poverty, poor housing, unemployment and family breakdown
0 Fewer opportunities to form the kinds of bonds that help to survive during difficult times
0 Structural, developmental, national, and historical factors are shaping youth transitions
0 EFFECTS vs. agency and capability:
0 Social disorder - harmful coping strategies
0 Long term impact on well-being
0 Active engagement and commitment to meaningful social roles predict higher levels of life satisfaction and well-being,
0 Variation and diversity in the transitions to adulthood
0 Economic difficulties have effects on life management and influence overall well-being
CHALLANGES
How to reduce the risks of
social exclusion for children
and youth from an early age?
How to support successful
transitions into independent
living targeted on youth with
low personal resources and
facing institutional and
structural constraints?
Structural obstacles in the
integration of policies
The promotion of citizenship
and participation can
empower youth agency and
encourage solidarity between
generations, society and
youth
Equal opportunity policies
• Quotation from the World Youth
Report 2011:
• Young people themselves are
crucial stakeholders in the pursuit
of decent and productive work for
all. They are rights-holders and
active participants in society, in
addition to representing the
future global workforce; often
times, they are also pioneers. Yet,
too frequently, their voices go
unheard and their positive and
negative experiences and
viewpoints unshared, particularly
with decision-makers.
THANK YOU!
