ABSTRACT
Conceptualizing divisions Although they belong to a common age cohort, young people do not represent a homogeneous group. The same divisions exist among young people as among older age groups: class, gender, ‘race’, ethnicity and so on. In time, young people will leave behind their youth and become recognized as adults, but the socio-economic divisions that shaped their lives
as young people will often characterize their adult lives. The interest of youth researchers is often stimulated by the enduring question of how – despite the desire to provide young people with a wide range of opportunities – social inequalities are frequently reproduced across generations. Youth, which should be a time of opportunity, or flux and transformation, is all too often about assuming roles that are in keeping with their social and economic origins. Youth in itself, though, is an important division, and one people will escape through the process of ageing, but nevertheless a subordinate category and, like childhood, one that defines a section of the population that can ‘legitimately’ be discriminated against. In all advanced societies, young people’s exclusion from certain key aspects of citizenship is enshrined in legislation. They may be prevented from marrying, living independently or from drinking alcohol. They may be forced to engage in various activities against their will, such as education, and may have certain activities closed off to them, such as work in specific occupations. Discrimination may be temporary, but it still involves the state-sanctioned denial of various rights and obligations of citizenship.
