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Representations of Youth: The Study of Youth and Adolescence in Britain and America

ISBN: 978-0-745-66674-7

April 2013

Polity

253 pages

Description

Representations of Youth examines the various constructions of 'youth' and 'adolescence' in recent British and North American research. Mainstream and radical approaches have presented a series of 'crises' about young people in relation to, among other things, unemployment, 'teenage pregnancy' and 'delinquency'. This book considers research in psychology, sociology, education, criminology and cultural studies in order to assess these accounts.

The author offers a critical review of a wide range of findings about young people in areas as diverse as education and training, leisure, family life and sexuality. She shows that whilst youth research texts do not reflect young people's experiences in any straightforward manner, they do indicate the various complex and contradictory ways in which 'youth', 'adolescence' and specific groups of young people are represented in contemporary western societies. In so arguing, she presents new terms for thinking about the position of young people today.

This is an important new text accessibly written for students of sociology, social psychology and contemporary culture in both Britain and the USA. It will also be of great interest to social science researchers in a range of other disciplines.

About the Author
Christine Griffin's recent publications include Typical Girls (Routledge 1990).
Features
* This book presents a broad range of material from an extensive research literature on youth, across a range of disciplines (psychology, sociology, education, criminology and cultural studies) and a range of areas (education, training, unemployment, leisure, family life and sexuality).
* It provides a critical review of youth research which examines the most recent developments in radical analyses, including feminist and post-structuralist perspectives.
* This book presents a broad range of material from an extensive research literature on youth, across a range of disciplines (psychology, sociology, education, criminology and cultural studies) and a range of areas (education, training, unemployment, leisure, family life and sexuality).
* It provides a critical review of youth research which examines the most recent developments in radical analyses, including feminist and post-structuralist perspectives.