Youth Cultures, Transitions and Generations ― Bridging the Gap in Youth Research

Within the diversity of contemporary youth research there are two dominant streams that can be categorized under the broad headings of 'transitions' and 'cultures' perspectives. This collection sets forth a challenge to youth studies, with the contributors arguing that social change means it is no longer possible to understand the experience of young people through this transitions/cultures prism. The future of youth studies, it is argued, will require new conceptual foundations, capable of bridging the gap between transitions and cultures approaches to researching youth. The chapters, including contributions from some of the most established names in contemporary youth studies, draw on a wide variety of alternative concepts, including generation, assemblage, field and belonging to rethink how the study of young lives should be pursued in the coming decades.

Dan Woodman is TR Ashworth Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology and Director of the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.