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6 - ‘It Was Not My Choice, You Know?’: Young People's Subjective Views and Decision-Making Processes in Biographical Transitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2009

By
Andreas Walther
Edited by
Ingrid Schoon  and
Rainer K. Silbereisen
Ingrid Schoon
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, University of London
Rainer K. Silbereisen
Affiliation:
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany
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Summary

Introduction

There is a broad spectrum of empirical evidence showing that young people's transitions from school to work are structured by class, education, gender, ethnicity, and region. Recently, increasing scientific attention has been given to the biographical aspects of youth transitions. The notion of ‘structured individualisation’ refers to the fact that individuals have access to different resources and opportunities in navigating through their lives, while social inequalities are being increasingly reproduced through individual decision making, such as whether to continue with education or to drop out at an early stage (Ball, Maguire, & Macrae, 2000; du Bois-Reymond & Chisholm, 2006; European Group for Integrated Social Research, 2001; Furlong & Cartmel, 1997; Henderson, Holland, McGrellis, Sharpe, & Thomson, 2006). Moreover, consequences of social inequality have changed. The implications of social inequality now reach beyond young people being allocated to different careers depending on their social status. Increasing risks of social exclusion imply that transitions can also fail (Castel, 2000). The view of institutional actors tends to reduce transitions exclusively to the achievement of educational qualifications and to labour-market entry. They ascribe success and failure in this respect to individuals' responsibility and rationality in making decisions regarding education, training, and job search. Recently, this has been reflected by a policy trend towards activation aimed at influencing individuals' adaptive behaviour (Harsløf, 2005; Lødemel & Trickey, 2001; McNeish & Loncle, 2003; Pohl & Walther, 2007; Serrano, 2004; van Berkel & Møller, 2002).

Type
Chapter
Information
Transitions from School to Work
Globalization, Individualization, and Patterns of Diversity
 , pp. 121 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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