Inventing Adulthoods: A Biographical Approach to Youth Transitions

Inventing Adulthoods: A Biographical Approach to Youth Transitions is a ground-breaking book that offers a new approach to understanding young people′s lives and their transitions to adulthood. Contrary to policy and research approaches that often see young people′s lives in a fragmented way, the book argues that a biographical approach to youth is vital to capture the holistic and dynamic character of young lives. Based on a study of a diverse group of 100 young people over a ten year period, the book shows how the interplay of chance, choice, and opportunity can shape their lives.

The book explores a number of high profile policy issues such as: education, employment, chemical cultures, cultures of violence and well-being; but also considers the significance of those things that mean most to young people themselves: mobility, home, belonging, intimacy and sociality.

Key Features:

• An emphasis on case studies and interviews
• A consideration of the impact that social factors such as gender, social class, sexuality, religion, disability, and family have on young people′s life opportunities
• Connections between young people′s lives, social policy frameworks, and practice applications
• A lively and engaging style

Inventing Adulthoods is an invaluable book for anyone interested in the lives of young people. Thought-provoking yet accessible, the text is ideal for students interested in youth studies, education and social change, as well as for youth workers, social workers and other practitioners.

I have research interests in youth, education, families, intimacy, feminist theory and methodology, and qualitative longitudinal methods, and publish in these areas. Currently Co-Director of Timescapes, an ESRC funded 5 year qualitative longitudinal study with seven projects covering the life course located in five UK universities (Leeds (lead, Director Bren Neale), LSBU, Cardiff, Edinburgh and The Open University). Also have an archiving project in this study with colleagues, Making the Long View, archiving data from a 10 year qualitative longitudinal study of youth transitions, Inventing Adulthoods. See too www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk; www.lsbu.ac.uk/inventingadulthoods.

Rachel Thomson is Professor of Social Resaerch in the School of Health and Social Welfare. Rachel has been involved in a major longitudinal qualitative study of young people transitions to adulthood, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council since 1996 through the Children 5-16 and the Young People, Citizenship and Social Change programmes. The study is currently being archived with the support of a grant from the ESRC, and will be made available for secondary analysis (see www.lsbu.ac.uk/inventingadulthoods). Her research interests focus on gender identities, social change, sexuality, values, transitions and popular culture.