ABSTRACT

A political economy acknowledges the many complex relations between advantage and disadvantage affecting young people, apart from the effects of age. This chapter begins with Cote's advocacy for a 'new political economy of youth'. Cote and many of his critics rely on a 'substantialist' framing of reality, which leaves them caught in a version of the 'structure' versus 'agency' debate. The chapter argues that a political economy of generation offers the best way to illuminate how young people are positioned, how they experience their world, and the nature of their relations with older people. Relations are particularly important, since older people often possess more economic, cultural and political power and will use these to further their own interests. The chapter also argues that generation itself is one of a number of important explanatory factors. In this political economy, categories like generation, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, geography and so forth, are presented in the way Bourdieu understands them.