ABSTRACT
Whatever the idealized appeal of Irish children and youth as the hope for the future, in reality growing up in Ireland has always been a notably unequal experience when account is taken of social class, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation and location. Typically, young people have occupied a subordinate position and have had little say in policy decisions impacting on their lives (see Lynch 1998). While the transitions that revolve around school, work, migration, housing, sexuality and lifestyle have always been complex for young people, modern society arguably raises even more contingencies in how young people live their lives. In an increasingly ‘individualized’ world (Beck 2001), people must grapple with the uncertainties of increased mobility, non-traditional family formation, new patterns of consumption as well as new political economies of work and inequality (see Bauman 2005). Young people may encounter an expanding array of liberating choices, but they also face new challenges that reflect the riskier nature of modern times (see Beck 2001; Cieslik and Pollock 2002). In particular, new forms of vulnerability and social exclusion await those whose capital (human, economic, social) resources fall seriously short of what’s required to find security and inclusion.
