Course syllabus

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Course Coordinator: Professor Alan France

a.france@Auckland.ac.nz

Across the advanced economies major changes have been taking place that are impacting on the young. Over the last 30 years there has been a reconfiguration of the pathways into adulthood for those aged over 16 years of age with the ‘school to work’ transition evaporating and being replaced by new trajectories. In this ‘new’ era those having left compulsory schooling are now more likely to enter either higher education or Vocational and Educational Training (VET). Alongside this, paid work that creates ‘careers,’ is being delayed and restructured suggesting that stability in work is not now established until young people are reaching their late twenties or early thirties. Since the economic crisis of 2007 these trends have not only continued but been accelerated and the process of moving into adulthood has become delayed and more precarious and uncertain.

But the impact of these changes have not been experienced equally. Major inequalities remain and have expanded throughout the great recession. In fact we see not only greater inequality between generations but also within generations. Gender, social class and ethnicity are having a significant impact on the types of pathways and trajectories that young people are on. But these changes have also had major implications in other aspects of young people’s lives. For example, high unemployment, precarious work and delayed transitions have impacted on young people’s living arrangements. Leaving home or living independently has become increasingly difficult resulting in many young people living in the family home for longer periods of time. These changes are also impacting on young people’s incomes and financial security. As student debt grows and wages remain low or insecure the notion of ‘financial independence’ has become increasingly difficult. At the same time those most ‘at risk’ of being unemployed or are being ‘churned’ through the welfare and justice system are coming under more surveillance and as a result we see the growth of welfare and justice systems increasing the forms and types of ‘punishment’ for failure.

In this course we will not only explore the drivers of these changes but also the policy responses of national governments from around the globe to what is being seen as the ‘the youth problem’. We will also look at what have been the implications of these changes on young peoples’ movement into adulthood and their future trajectories?

In this we also examine how policy is contributing to this process and ask is it helpful and what implications does it have for being young (or adult) today? These are central questions to this course and one’s that we will explore across the programme, drawing upon sociological tools and theories and using a number of international examples. The core objectives of the course are to understand and explore

  • The forces and drivers of social change and how it is impacting on young people’s experience of growing up
  • What is youth policy, how is it constructed and what contribution does it make to young people’s lives – and how can we understand it sociologically
  • The types of policies being used and developed, especially since the 2007 global economic crisis in a range of international contexts that are aimed specifically at the young.
  • What is the relationship between youth policy and social inequality – does (can) policy make a difference?
  • What impact have these changes had on what it means to be young or / and an adult in late modernity

LECTURE PROGRAMME

March 6th                            Lecture One: Introduction and what is youth?

We start the course by thinking about our subject matter – youth. Before we can explore the idea of ‘youth policy’ we need to give some reflection on how we understand what youth might mean and how it is conceptualised. In this lecture we concentrate on how notions of ‘adolescence’ have been influential in shaping the policy landscape for the young.

Seminar Questions

  1. Critical evaluate the psychological perspective of youth development
  2. What do we mean by youth is a social construct? Give some examples

 

March 13th                          Lecture Two: Theorising youth and what is social policy

We start this lecture by continuing our discussion on what is youth – by exploring the different ways it has been conceptualised and understood. In the second part of the lecture we will turn our attention to social policy – what it is and how can we understand its role in young people’s lives?

Seminar questions:

  1. How do different perspectives understand the role of social policy?
  2. How might we understand and analysis social policy?

 

March 20th                          Lecture Three; Welfare Regimes and Youth Policy

Youth policy has to be understood in its context. Firstly, we will examine what we mean by ‘youth policy’ in different countries exploring some of the key attributes and aspects that fall under this heading. We will also examine how youth policy operates across the ecological landscape In the second part of the lecture we will turn our attention to who the critical actors are in shaping youth policy, looking at the role of political movements and social actors, the media, and the use of evidence.

Seminar questions:

  1. What is meant by ‘welfare regimes’? How useful are they and what are their limitations?
  2. What is youth social policy and how is it constructed?

 

March 27th              Lecture Four; Education, Education (and Training)

In this lecture we start by examining the international trends in the growth of post 16 education and training. In the second part of the lecture we will explore how these policies emerged in a range of countries and what they look like examining both the growth and expansion of higher education and the VET sector. In the final part of the lecture we will examine the impact of these approaches on the ‘skills revolution.

Seminar and essay questions:

  1. What are the main trends in education and training? Critically review the main policy goals that have driven them?
  2. How have governments developed policies to increase participation in education and training and how effective have they been?

 

April 3rd                              Lecture Five Education and who benefits?

This lecture explores the way neoliberalism has changed the field of practice in post-16 education and training in countries such as UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Secondly the lecture will outline and examine the impact of the introduction of the ‘user pays’ philosophy showing how it is impact on student debt and life chances beyond education and training. The final section of this lecture explores the question of the widening participation agenda examining how effective it has been in a number of countries in bringing different social groups into the education and training field.

Seminar and essay questions:

  1. What has been happening to graduate employment? Give examples from at least two countries to show how policy has responded
  2. Who has benefited from ‘widening participation’ in education and training and why?

 

April 10th                            Lecture Six: Paid Work and Precariousness

This lecture considers what has been happening to young people’s relationships with paid work. The  discussion will start by examining how changes in this relationship have been conceptualised, highlighting the importance of recognising the nature of these new relationships, especially in terms of insecurity, uncertainty and precariousness. Flexibility has been the ‘buzz word in policy and we will examine some of the ‘new’ ways of working that have been supported by policy such as internships, zero contracts, flexicurity and the youth guarantee. Seminar and essay questions;

  1. What do we mean by precarious work? Is it a useful way of conceptualising youth employment?
  2. Critically review labour market policies that governments have been developing to increase employment opportunities for the young?

 

May 1st                               Lecture Seven: Unemployment and a NEET solution

This lecture starts by examining the trends and developments in unemployment showing how it varies across geographies. It will also examine the growing significance of NEETS (Not in education, employment of training) highlighting how this has become the ‘new’ social problem of our time. Anxieties over ‘worklessness’ or the ‘underclass’ and ‘workshy’ have always been a concern of policy and what we see is policies that target these groups as a ‘problem to be solved’.  The concluding discussion will explore how these policies contact and shape the moral economy around NEETS.

Seminar and essay question:

  1. Why should we be concerned about NEETS?
  2. What types of policies have been used to tackle the ‘problem’ of NEETS? Critical evaluate how effective they are?

 

May 8th and May 15th           Lecture Eight and Nine: Getting the young back to work

(Including Guest lecture Louise Humpage)

Following on from the previous discussion this week’s lecture will give special attention to how the state has been involved in developing ALMP (Active Labour Market Policies).  In the first part of the lecture we will explore what this has meant for welfare policy in a range of national states showing how it has created a form of practice that requires ‘active’ compliance. The final section of the lecture will concentrate on the expansion of welfare to work (or workfare) that force young people to undertake work to receive benefits. Associate Professor Louise Humpage will then give a guest lecture on policy of income management and its impact on the young.

Seminar and essay questions:

  1. What do we mean by workfare and useful is it in getting the young back into employment? (May 11th)
  2. What is the policy of income management and how is it impacting the young? (May 18th)

 

 May 22nd                            Lecture Ten: Youth and mobility

So far the course has concentrated on major changes to education, training, work and welfare in this lecture we will concentrate on the question of mobility. Firstly, we will explore data and evidence about the international trends on how young people are being mobile (or not) in terms of their accommodation status. Concepts such as the ‘boomerang generation’, the ‘rental generation’, and ‘nesters’ are being are abound but what do they mean and how relevant are they in explaining young people’s experiences today? Finally we will turn our attention to the question of youth and inequality – looking not just at inequality within generations but also between – asking questions about how socially mobile are the young?

Seminar topic and essay question

  1. What are the international trends on youth living at home and what kind of strategies are young people using as a way of helping them achieve independence?
  2. Is there an argument that ‘baby boomers’ are taking all the resources of the millennial generation?

 

May 29th                             Lecture Eleven: Review and exam revision.

June 5th                              Queen’s Birthday no class

Course summary:

Date Details Due