Youth

This accessible book takes a fresh and original approach to the concept of youth, placing changes in the social construction of "youth" within a more general story of the rise and fall of grand theory in social science. Gill Jones evaluates the current relevance of these wider social theories to understanding youth in late modernity in the light of key examples of empirical work on young people. Individual chapters are organized around the themes of action, identity, transition, inequality and dependence – conceptual themes which cross-cut young people's lives. The book considers the validity of youth as a social concept and examines ways of identifying what is specific to young people without resorting to seeing them as a homogeneous group defined by their age; in so doing, it uncovers notions which are erroneously attributed to young people.

Youth represents a thought-provoking challenge to a new generation of social science students, youth researchers and practitioners to distance themselves from the politically- and emotively-charged issue of youth in contemporary society and move further towards re-theorizing the concept of youth in ways which are relevant to young people’s lives today.

About the Author

Gill Jones is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Keele University.

Features

An original presentation of the concept of youth - an exciting rethinking of the social construction of ‘youth’ that explores new ways of theorizing youth without prejudice or lumping ‘young people’ together as one uniform category.

Places the concept within a wide range of contexts, considering: youth cultures, youth movements, inequalities, transitions from childhood to adulthood, issues of dependence and independence, amongst other issues.

Relates the historical and contemporary understanding of ‘youth’ to wider social theory in a very accessible and practical way, offering suggestions as to how to understand ‘youth’ in the 21st century.

Gill Jones is a very well respected figure in youth studies/sociology of youth - one of the most senior in the UK. This book is a succinct account of her opinion on youth today after years of research and experience in the field.

Relevant for courses such as sociology of youth/childhood/adolescence/the family, as well as on a wider range of courses across the social sciences which deal with young people (e.g. young offenders & youth crime; youth employment/labour markets; social work; social & educational policy, etc)

Series

Key Concepts

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