The Precarious Generation: A Political Economy of Young People

Many young people born since the early 1980s face unprecedented social and economic disadvantage. While they spend more time in education, even university graduates now find it difficult to access full-time work, find affordable decent housing or enjoy the economic security needed to start families. This book draws on the voices of young people to document their experiences in increasingly unequal societies like the USA, United Kingdom, France, Spain and Australia. While governments and experts refer to new technologies, globalisation and risk society to explain their plight, the authors maintain we need look no further than recent public policies adopted by governments wedded to advancing market capitalism to understand why this is happening. This book draws on a wealth of evidence including young people's own stories to document how they are now faring in increasingly unequal societies like America, Britain, Australia, France and Spain. It points to systematic generational inequality as those born since 1980 become the first generation to have a lower standard of living than previous generations. While governments and experts typically explain this by referring to globalization, new technologies or young people's deficits, the authors of this book offer a new political economy of generations which identifies the central role played by governments promoting neoliberal policies that exacerbate existing social inequalities based on age, ethnicity, gender and class. The book is a must read for social science students, human service workers and policy-makers and indeed for anyone interested in understanding the impact of government policy over the last 40 years on young people.