ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 proceeds with an analytic presentation of research methodology on investigating young NEETs in Southern Europe. The research was conducted within the project “YOUTHShare: A Place for Youth in Mediterranean EEA: Resilient and Sharing Economies for NEETs” and concerns young (between 25 and 29 years of age) women and migrant / asylum seekers / refugee NEETs in coastal and island areas of Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Spain. More specifically for Greece the target areas were the regions of North and South Aegean, Attica and Central Macedonia, for Cyprus the whole country, for Italy the regions of Basilicata, Sardinia, Sicily, Campania, Lombardy and Lazio, and for Spain the regions of Murcia, Madrid, Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Andalucía. Research adopts a multi-methodological approach combining the utilisation of secondary statistical data on NEETs in the four countries and in the target areas with primary quantitative and qualitative data through questionnaires, in-depth interviewing and participant observation with NEETs in the target areas and with various other actors such as policymakers and key persons in central and regional employment agencies. This chapter contains an analysis of the whole methodological framework applied in the research along with its theoretical presuppositions. The latter concern an analysis of the ways that meta-theoretical and theoretical frameworks such as critical realism and cultural political economy informed both the research design and the theorisation of findings.
