ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use and usefulness of the concept of 'youth'. Research on young people's lives in non-Western countries exposes the ideal of the happy, safe childhood and period of youth as myths, 'built around the social preoccupations and priorities of the capitalist countries of Europe and the United States' The idea that youth only has meaning in relation to specific circumstances is also supported by a consideration of class relations. Historical analyses of the popular representations of young people in Australia before the 1950s, however, suggest that it is important to recognise the continuity of popular discourses about youth. The idea that youth are a problem to society, and to themselves, is a central theme to which the media and youth researchers alike return. Critics of the concept of a youth underclass argue that it is too broad a concept to generate an understanding of the marginalising processes themselves, focusing instead on the results of marginalization.
