ABSTRACT
This book started from an analysis of the changes youth as life phase is undergoing in a changing world. We have embedded the process of entering the labour market in wider biographical contexts and the societal developments which influence every single of these contexts - and above all, the way these contexts have to be inter-related in a biographically meaningful way by the young women and men themselves. We have argued that this process of biographization of youth is scarcely reflected especially by education and training policies but also by mainstream youth research which still are based on the assumption of youth as a status passage to a stable stage of adulthood with clear and reachable criteria - instead of acknowledging the ups and downs of the real transition process. We also have made the point that this is one of the reasons why there is a growing mistrust among young women and men towards societal institutions which can no longer keep their vague promises of social integration and still demand a lot of resources like motivation. Our starting hypotheses was that training and education offers to young people are likely to bridge this gap if they offer alternative ways of learning. Performing arts, according to us, should be especially apt to feature these new forms of learning. To find out to which extent and in which way these indirect forms of learning are happening, we have conducted three multi-facetted case studies on community-based education and training courses for young women and men who, for some reason or other, had disengaged with other forms of training. These courses in Lisbon, Portugal, Liverpool, United Kingdom, and Mannheim, Germany, offered training in performing arts such as music, drama and dance.
