Peter D. Dwyer

New Directions in Research on Youth in Transition

ABSTRACT New directions in research on youth transitions are examined, with particular reference to the research findings of recent studies from different countries. The convergence of evidence in the studies points to a significant shift of emphasis for the study of youth transitions and the need for a more interactive research process that enables the participants to articulate their own meanings and experiences. One limitation of the studies is that the participants are the ‘successful’ members of the generation, but it is clear from the evidence that the meaning of ‘transition’ has changed in ways that raise questions both about the links between social structures and individual agency and about new definitions of adulthood. Not only do we need to document in greater detail what transition means in the lives of this post-1970 generation, but also we need to ask how their new life-patterns are already responding to or shaping new forms of adulthood.

New Patterns of Youth Transition in Education

Current research provides evidence that new relationships are being forged between youth people and education. Increased participation in post-compulsory education, combinations of work and study and uncertain career outcomes havebecome common experiences. There is an emerging disparity between the stated goals of education and the changing priorities and choices of young people. In particular, the linear notion of transitions, expressed in the metaphorsof pathways used in policy documents, is increasingly at odds with the patterns of life experienced by young people in many nations. Three themes stand out in the research on young people in the 1990s. First, an awareness of foreclosed options in educational outcomes is a consistent thread across a range of studies. Secondly, there is a discernible shift by the end of the 1990s toward more complex life-patterns and a blending or balancing of a range of personal priorities and interests. Thirdly, the need to give ‘active voice’ to young people about the dramatic social and economic changes they have been subjected to, is unmistakable in the light of the increasing disparity between the rhetoric of youth and education policy and their own experience of its out-comes.

Education and Negotiated Reality: Complexities Facing Rural Youth in the 1990s

ABSTRACT The educational decisions of rural youth are examined using data from two longitudinal surveys. One has questionnaire data gathered in 1992 and 1996, from about 2000 high school graduates in Victoria, Australia. The second studied a cohort of over 1200 youths (born in 1971) in urban and rural Canada, surveyed in 1989 and 1994. Findings show rural/urban differences in educational expectations and outcomes. The two data sets also document the complexities of youth transitions as they combine school and work, leave the parental home, undertake marriage and/or parenting, and experience unemployment. The analysis challenges the notion of the transitions from youth to adulthood as linear, preset or predictable. Rather these transitions are experienced by the young people as complex, changeable and negotiated—and as different for many rural as compared to urban youth. Suggestions for research and for educational policy are given.

Post‐compulsory education policy in Australia and its impact on participant pathways and outcomes in the 1990s

The substantial redefinition of youth and education policy in Australia over the past decade has been associated with an increased emphasis on university entrance and the adoption of a sequential model of pathways between the two worlds of study and work. Because these new policy settings have been in operation for sufficient time now to warrant examination of their effectiveness in terms of participant outcomes, this article examines them in the light of research findings from a major longitudinal study of young Australians who left school in 1991. Definite signs of incompatibility between policy and outcomes are identified with regard to non‐university study pathways, uncertain career prospects, and the assumed linear sequence between study and work. The analysis articulates a theoretical concern about the inappropriateness of the policy settings and leads into a re‐examination of the data with reference to a typology of ‘life patterns’ more compatible with young peoples experience than the prevailing ...

Hunting in Lowland, Tropical Rain Forest: Towards a Model of Non-Agricultural Subsistence

It has recently been argued that hunter-gatherers do not, did not, and could not live in tropical rain forest without some access to agricultural produce. This opinion challenges models of past non-agricultural subsistence patterns that are based in analogies derived from modern rain forest dwelling groups. In this paper, the socio-ecological bases of the hunting system of the Kubo people of lowland Papua New Guinea are described. It is argued that this system lacks necessary dependence upon the agricultural system with which it co-occurs and, in fact, can be connected with a system of carbohydrate procurement that is not agricultural. The hypothesized connection provides the basis of a model of non-agricultural subsistence in lowland tropical rain forest.

Etolo hunting performance and energetics

Analyses of nearly 3000 hr of hunting for mammals by Etolo people of Papua New Guinea reveal that older hunters were more successful than younger hunters, that increased success was due, in large part, to higher rates of capture for only two of 24 prey species, and that access to a good hunting dog accounted for the increase in rate of capture for one of these two species. A comparison of Gadio Enga and Rofaifo mammal hunting with that of Etolo reveals a marked decline in energy and protein yields with increase of altitude. This is attributed to altitudinal changes in the composition of the available fauna within Papua New Guinea and to reinforcing effects from increased human population density.

The pigs that ate the garden : a human ecology from Papua New Guinea

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Use of Scattered Resources in Rain Forest of Humid Tropical Lowlands

Well developed, complex rain forests of humid tropical lowlands (RFHTL) do not seem to support large populations of animals compared with other types of forest. Recent studies of terrestrial and understory species of tropical and subtropical forests indicate that the resources available to animals of RFHTL are generally scattered and uncommon. On the forest floor only ants and termites, among insects, are consistently common; they are utilized as food by a variety of specialized ground insectivores. Terrestrial herbivores that eat large fallen fruit are also generally scarce as are the often specialized insectivores that seek typically uncommon understory foliage insects. The low densities and high degrees of specialization that accommodate animal species to resources of RFHTL may be ultimately due to a combination of relatively low net primary production of undisturbed mature rain forest and the rapid rate of microbial decomposition of forest litter. -from Authors

Are incentive programs working? Landowner attitudes to ecological restoration of agricultural landscapes

Private property accounts for much of the planets arable land, and most of this has been cleared for agricultural production. Agricultural areas retain only fragments of their original vegetation and this has been detrimental to many native plant and animal species. Habitat restoration and revegetation may be able to reconnect and enlarge existing remnant areas in agricultural landscapes and, thereby, enhance native plant and animal communities. However, conservation initiatives will be successful only if landowners actively participate in restoration actions. This study used four hundred postal questionnaires to assess the degree to which landowners in two regions of south-eastern Australia adopt restoration activities, their opinions regarding remnant and revegetated land and their management actions in these areas. One hundred and seventy nine completed questionnaires were received. Three quarters of respondents had undertaken restoration on their property or were planning to revegetate in the future. Landcare members were most likely to have previously revegetated and future revegetation intentions were best predicted by previous restoration activities and a primary income source that was off-farm. Landowners were more likely to manage restored and remnant areas if they perceived threats such as weeds, pest animals and fire risk would be detrimental to their property, than to enhance environmental outcomes. These results indicate that landowners are interested in restoring natural areas, but without greater assistance to restore ground layers and manage perceived threats posed by fire and invasive plants and animals, restoration actions will not have their desired biodiversity benefits.

PREY SWITCHING: A CASE STUDY FROM NEW GUINEA

A quantitative seasonal switch occurs in the species of mammalian prey taken by Etolo people of Papua New Guinea. The switch in species of prey is largely a result of shifting from trapping mammals at one time of the year to hunting them at another. It is reinforced by the increased vulnerability of certain species during the period when new gardens are prepared; this period coincides with trapping. -from Author