Manuela du Bois-Reymond

Young People's Perceptions on Youth and Adulthood. A Longitudinal Study from The Netherlands

The present study departs from the sociological notion that the boundaries between youth and adulthood are increasingly blurring. In order to investigate this assumption, semi-structured biographical interviews have been conducted in 1988 and 1997 among 85 youngsters, who were asked to reflect upon youth and adulthood. Attention was paid, among other things, to their perceptions of adulthood and to the social roles that have historically been connected with adulthood, these being work and family. Using HOMALS analysis, a complex of differentiated perceptions was found. These largely varied as a function of social status and gender. Lower-class youth tended to perceive adulthood primarily in terms of starting a family and getting a job, whereas higher-class youth associated adulthood either with individual development or a complex of indicators (work, family, individual development). We found evidence for the socialization theory, as well as for the notion of reflexivity as it has been put forward by theories on postmodernism.

Youth transitions, gender and social change

European youth studies increasingly use critical modernisation theory to understand the changing social circumstances and cultural context of contemporary youth in advanced western societies. It is generally argued that the social biography of youth is taking a new form and meaning in the light of individualisation and destandardisation/destructuring processes. On the basis of data drawn from two recent studies of British and Dutch teenage girls, this paper argues that the relationships between youth and social change are more complex and fragmented than has been frequently implied. In particular, youth transitions continue to be marked by the effects of systematic social inequalities, such as gender relations, and these imply that gender-specific adult Normalbiographien remain of sociological and personal significance.

Trendsetting Learning Biographies: Concepts of Navigating through Late-modern Life and Learning

In this article we build a theoretical framework with which to analyse trendsetting learning biographies; that is, biographies that are prototypical realisations of a cultural script about how young people learn and live in late modernity. In the current debate on lifelong learning in knowledge-based societies learners are interpreted in an economical and psychological sense. Notions from youth, life course, and generation sociology are, however, needed to fully understand trendsetting learning biographies. We selected 14 Dutch younger adults (varying by class and gender) with these biographies, analysed their biographical narrations, and explored the importance of structure and agency in their learning biographies. Their life stories reveal a structured interrelation between an integrated life conception, special forms of social capital, and the key competence of biographicity. We conclude with some thought on the complications of theory building when interpreting learners in a biographical sense.

Simply the Best for My Children: Patterns of Parental Involvement in Education.

This article explores parental involvement in the educational trajectories of children in Europe. The analysis is embedded in the framework of the three dominant contemporary social processes that have been acknowledged as crucial factors for the educational and life trajectories of young people today, i.e. familialization, institutionalization, and individualization. The article draws on qualitative data gathered during interviews with parents of lower secondary school students in disadvantaged city areas within the research project, GOETE, in eight European countries. The analysis focuses on specific behavioral aspects that were identified as the most relevant in our empirical evidence: parental educational aspirations and future plans for their children, the role of parents in decision-making in educational transitions and trajectories, parental participation in the school, and parental support with schoolwork. The most striking finding is the persistent emphasis on individual responsibility for both students and parents in terms of education. Parents realize that the future of their child not only depends on the work of the teacher but also to a great and growing degree on parents as coeducators. This parental awareness results in a high level of confidence in the power of education, which is met by parental skepticism when they experience a lack of school support and distant parent–teacher relationships and communication.

Young Adolescents’ Leisure Patterns

Abstract Until recently, studies into juveniles’ leisure activities concentrated mainly on adolescents. In this study, the leisure activities of both pre-adolescents and adolescents are studied. Departing from sociological debates on the busyness of contemporary young adolescents’ leisure diaries and of an advanced onset of the transition from childhood into the youth phase, a questionnaire was designed for 10 to 15 year-olds. 927 Dutch youngsters were studied. By means of CATPCA, it was found that 10–12 year-old girls mainly engage in reading and in creative activities, whereas the boys spend most time playing outside. Fourteen and fifteen year-olds, on the other hand, showed a clear interest in youth-cultural activities, which did not support theoretical notions about the advancement of adolescence at the expense of childhood. Questions on organized activities showed that the market of leisure opportunities is not equally accessible to everyone: higher class kids are in an advantageous position compared to lower class kids, which affects the degree to which these subgroups have the opportunity to develop important leisure capital through informal learning.

Youth - Learning - Europe: Ménage à Trois?

This article explores the relationship between three basic concepts that are much discussed by pedagogues, scientists and politicians: changes in the life-courses of young people, educational opportunities, and ongoing Europeanization. There is a complex relationship existing between the three ‘partners’, with youth, learning and Europe forming a difficult menage a trois. But evident to all players in the field is that educational institutions no longer respond adequately to societal demands and individual needs. The author suggests that among contemporary European youth are trendsetters who make their own learning agendas by drawing less on formal education and more on informal and non-formal learning contexts. This is in parallel with growing political and scientific consciousness of the need to arrive at new educational/vocational policies and practices in Europe to serve all young people.

Der Verhandlungshaushalt im Modernisierungsprozeß

Das Konzept des Verhandlungshaushaltes spielt in der Diskussion uber Wandlungen der Generationenbeziehungen im Modernisierungsprozes eine prominente Rolle; es scheint genau die gesellschaftlichen Veranderungen zu bezeichnen, die die Familie erfast haben. Und doch ist es angebracht, sich immer wieder eines prazisen und nicht inflationaren Gebrauchs dieses Begriffs zu vergewissern. Dies sagen wir nicht nur andern, sondern auch uns selbst. So haben wir offenbar mit unserer Darstellung trotz aller vermeintlichen Umsicht (du Bois-Reymond, Buchner, Kruger, Fuhs, Ecarius 1994: 215 ff, im folgenden als Kinderleben zitiert) mancherorts den Eindruck geweckt, „der Verhandlungshaushalt“ sei etwas „Gutes“, eben Modernes, und „der Befehlshaushalt“ das Gegenteil davon.

‘Me, my education and I’: constellations of decision-making in young people’s educational trajectories

How do the educational trajectories of young people develop differently at the transition between lower and upper secondary education and training – even amongst students labelled as disadvantaged with regard to social background, gender or ethnicity? The aim of the article is to understand the role of decision-making in the emergence of educational trajectories. Based on the analysis of qualitative interviews with students from schools in disadvantaged areas, patterns of educational trajectories are discerned with regard to the ruptures they involve, the destinations they take and the degree of choice young people have. The in-depth analysis of exemplary cases, however, reveals that even within similar patterns of trajectories decision-making processes occur in different ways. Therefore, constellations of decision-making are elaborated which cross-cut the patterns of educational trajectories. The fact that both institutional structures of different education systems and individual biographical orientations do make a difference reveals the complexity of educational trajectories in the interplay of structure and agency.

'And then to decide what to do next...'. Young people's educational and labour trajectories: A longitudinal study from the Netherlands.

Op basis van een longitudinaal onderzoek onder jongeren en jong volwassenen afkomstig van verschillende opleidingen worden de volgende vragen beantwoord: -Welke verschillende opleidings- en werktrajecten zien we bij huidige meisjes en jongens?; - Hoe willen jongeren in de toekomst arbeid en zorgtaken combineren?; Wat betekenen deze opleidings- en werktrajecten voor hun kansen en risicos op de arbeidsmarkt, en hoe schatten zij deze zelf in? Op basis van de gegevens is een typologie gemaakt van vier verschillende opleidings- en arbeidstrajecten: institutionele logica traject, ouderschapstraject, stapeling van opleidingen traject, wisseltrajecten.

Young parenthood in the Netherlands

The article takes the perspective of parenthood as a complex transition process that young adults have to pass through and have to manage. Becoming and being a parent today is not a self-evident stage in the life course as it was for former generations, but involves the necessity and ability to develop and use networks and learn to find a balance between options and constraints. Starting from youth sociological theories about destandardized life courses in late modernity, the Dutch case is taken to illustrate new learning demands and desires of young parents, Dutch as well as non-Dutch. The ‘combination problem’ of work and care is different for Dutch and non-Dutch young parents. Political initiatives and new institutional facilities at the local level have developed, which are in-tended to activate the self-responsibility of young adults and parents. It is shown that the social welfare state of the Netherlands still provides fair living chances for the majority of young people and parents but that the tension between Dutch and non-Dutch groups is growing.