Social Exclusion and the Remaking of Social Networks

How do young people make effective transitions into work? This question has occupied the minds of parents and young people, and also researchers and policy makers, as they face up to challenges presented by globalization and technological change. The foremost governmental response to this challenge has been to expand training systems to improve young people's qualifications. However, it is clear that for many this response has failed to deliver the promised rewards and the legitimation of this strategy has been exhausted. This book explores developments in training and in social welfare to show that third way administrations in England and New Zealand are reconnecting young people to the labour market through creating social networks. Social Exclusion and the Remaking of Social Networks describes how networks are being remade by the state in commodified forms.

Rob Strathdee is Senior Lecturer of Education in the School of Education at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.