ABSTRACT
Efforts to understand young people’s pathways come up against the limitations of explanations that overemphasize events or variables on only one of the structure–agency extremes, i.e., either contextual determinants, social class and gender, or simply individual choices and strategies. Understanding of pathways is also limited when importance is put on start or end points in individuals pathways, without taking into account the whole temporal process of their complexity. The debate about the significant factors determining young people’s life course can be improved by moving away from rigid, timeless, exaggerated agency or structure positions. This chapter presents a processual perspective by developing on three key ideas: the configuration of multiple dynamic—structure and agency—factors; time-oriented and sequential analysis of pathway events and facts; and reflexivity and narrative as drivers of understanding for young people’s pathways. Finally, the processual framework opens up new theoretical horizons for the agency–structure debate, while challenging causality in the social sciences. These ideas are illustrated by qualitative and longitudinal empirical data from research projects analysing young people’s pathways in different countries (Canada, France and Argentina).
