Understanding Youth in the Global Economic Crisis

In this innovative book, Alan France looks not at the economic impact of the global economic crisis and great recession of the past decade, but at the effect these forces have had on our very understanding of youth through its associated institutions. Taking eight countries as case studies, he undertakes an in-depth sociological analysis of historical and contemporary developments in secondary education, training, work, and welfare policy to show how the ecological landscape of youth has been affected. Mapping the growing influence of neoliberalism as a political strategy in each of the countries, he shows how, after the crisis, the reconfiguration of institutions and practices that are central to the lives of the young is accelerating, bringing new meaning to youth, age, transition, diversity, risk, and inclusion.

Alan France is professor of sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is coauthor of, most recently,A Political Ecology of Youth and Crime.