Youth, Transitions and Social Exclusion: Some Issues for Youth Research in the UK

ABSTRACT Studies of the economic restructuring of the UK suggest that the future labour market will be typified by increasing proportions of workers unemployed or subemployed in casual, informal, peripheral, non-standard jobs. Clearly the future working lives of many young people will be substantially different from those of their parents' generation, as full employment in regular, relatively permanent jobs gives way to more insecure and risky working lives. Some of the social problems that have accompanied the fracturing of previous youth transitions are reviewed and the idea that such problems are indicative of the emergence of a deviant, anti-social, anti-work underclass introduced. The focus is upon Teesside in north-east England, a locality which reveals these broad social and economic transformations in the most dramatic way. In conclusion, four themes which might inform future research on marginal youth transitions and social exclusion in the UK are outlined.