Table Of ContentAgainst the background of the global financial crisiswhich has left a legacyof
political turmoil and a populist surge across Europe, this book could not be
more timely. The contributors offer the reader a comparative understanding of
youth inequalities in difficult times. Labour market, family transitions and
intergenerational relationships are described and explained from a life course
perspective and firmly located in an era of increasing social inequality. The
editors are to be commended on pulling together such an excellent collection.
Fiona Devine, Head of Alliance Manchester Business School and Professor
of Sociology at The University of Manchester, UK
Social change is complicated! This book brilliantly shows and explains how a
new generation of young Europeans are living through the consequences of
theglobal financialcrisis,recalibratingtheirexpectations andoptimisingtheir
resources in ways that compound inequality. Empirically robust, theoretically
nuanced and rooted in a range of European contexts, this is state of the art
youth studies, providing asense of howwegot into this situation, offering the
starting point for navigating a more socially just future.
Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood & Youth Studies,
University of Sussex, UK
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Transitions to Adulthood Through
Recession
Long-running trends towards increasing inequality between the rich and poor
across Europe have been exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis and
itsaftermath.Asemploymentopportunitiesforyoungpeoplediminish andas
the welfare state is pulled back, pathways to adulthood change and become
more difficult to navigate.
TransitionstoAdulthoodThroughRecessionconsistsofacollectionofpapers
by researchers from Britain, Norway, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Greece,
locating young people’s transitions to adulthood in their national social, eco-
nomic and political contexts. It explores young adulthood with reference to
generational continuity and change and intergenerational support. With a
cross-national comparative framework, this volume highlights the importance
of variations in structural contexts for young people’s transitions.
Bringing together authors across sub-disciplines such as the sociology of
youth,familyand kinship,classandinequalityand life-coursestudies,Transi-
tions toAdulthood Through Recession will appeal to academic social scientists
as well as final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in
fields such as political science, sociology, youth studies, social policy, anthro-
pology and psychology; and awider public readership.
Sarah Irwin is Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, UK.
Ann Nilsen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Youth, Young Adulthood and Society
Series editor: Andy Furlong, University of Glasgow, UK
The Youth,YoungAdulthood and Society seriesbringstogethersocialscientists
from many disciplines to present research monographs and collections, seeking
tofurtherresearchintoyouthinourchangingsocietiesaroundtheworldtoday.
Thebooksinthisseriesadvancethefieldofyouthstudiesbypresentingoriginal,
excitingresearch,withstronglytheoretically-andempirically-groundedanalysis.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Youth-Young-Adulthood-and-Society/book-series/YYAS
Published:
Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles
Steven Threadgold
Youth Homelessness and Survival Sex
Intimate Relationships and Gendered Subjectivities
Juliet Watson
Spaces of Youth
Work, Citizenship and Culture in a Global Context
David Farrugia
Transitions to Adulthood Through Recession
Youth and Inequality in a European Comparative Perspective
Edited by Sarah Irwin and Ann Nilsen
Forthcoming:
Rethinking Young People’s Marginalisation
Beyond Neo-Liberal Futures?
Perri Campbell, Lyn Harrison, Chris Hickey and Peter Kelly
Transitions to Adulthood
Through Recession
Youth and Inequality in a European
Comparative Perspective
Edited by
Sarah Irwin and Ann Nilsen
Firstpublished2018
byRoutledge
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©2018selectionandeditorialmatter,SarahIrwinandAnnNilsen;
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AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Irwin,Sarah,1961-author.|Nilsen,Ann,author.
Title:Transitionstoadulthoodthroughrecession:youthandinequalityina
Europeancomparativeperspective/SarahIrwinandAnnNilsen.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2018.|Series:
Youth,youngadulthoodandsociety|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017047046|ISBN9781138294288(hardback)
Subjects:LCSH:Youth--Europe--Socialconditions--21stcentury.|Youth--
Europe--Economicconditions--21stcentury.|Adulthood--Europe.|
Equality--Europe.
Classification:LCCHQ799.E9I792018|DDC305.242094--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017047046
ISBN:978-1-138-29428-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-23168-6(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations ix
About the authors xi
Acknowledgements xv
1 Understanding youth transitions in difficult times 1
SARAHIRWINANDANNNILSEN
2 Youth research meets life course terminology: The transitions
paradigm revisited 17
KENROBERTS
3 Transitions from school to work in Norway and Britain among
three familygenerations of working-class men 35
JULIABRANNEN,KRISTOFFERCHELSOMVOGT,ANNNILSENAND
ABIGAILKNIGHT
4 How parents see their children’s future: Education, work and
social change in England 55
SARAHIRWIN
5 Biography, history and place: Understanding youth transitions in
Teesside 74
ROBERTMACDONALDANDTRACYSHILDRICK
6 Social inequality and the transition to education and training:
The significance of family background in Germany 97
BIRGITJENTSCHANDHERWIGREITER
7 Youth transitions and generations in Portugal: Examining change
between baby-boomers and millennials 115
NUNOALMEIDAALVES
viii Contents
8 Young people and housing transitions: Moral obligations of
intergenerational support in an Italian working-class context 137
ELENAMATTIOLIANDNICOLADELUIGI
9 Youngpeople,transitiontoadulthoodandrecessioninGreece:In
search of abetter future 156
ALEXANDROSSAKELLARIOUANDALEXANDRAKORONAIOU
10 Kinship, community and the transition to adulthood:
Geographical differences and recent changes in European society 176
PATRICKHEADY
Index 198
Illustrations
Figures
7.1 Employment of the age group 15–29 by economic sector,
Portugal, 1985–2015 (%) 119
7.2 Unemployment rate of the age group 15–29, Portugal,
1983–2016 (%) 121
7.3 Proportion of employeeswith permanent contracts (age group
15–29), Portugal, 1983–2016 (%) 121
7.4 Education by age group, Portugal, 1981–2011 (%) 123
7.5 Economic activity status by age group, Portugal (%) 124
7.6 Origin of income by age group, Portugal 1981–2011 (%) 124
7.7 Family status by age group, Portugal 1981–2011 (%) 125
7.8 Age pyramids, Portugal 1970 and 2015 (%) 127
10.1 Intergenerational co-residence by European macro-region and
area type 179
10.2 Total national fertility rate (2005) by mean completed family
size (women born in 1965) 182
10.3 Spatial endogamy (local marriages and partnerships) by
macro-region and area type 184
10.4 Spatial clustering of relatives by European macro-region and
area type 185
10.5 Gendering of domestic tasks by spatial clustering of relatives 185
10.6 Ratio of children to young adults, by European macro-region
and areatype 186
Tables
3.1 Grandfathers 41
3.2 Fathers 42
3.3 Sons 44
10.1 Percentages of young adults living with their parents in 2005 178
