Transitions from School to Work: Globalization, Individualization, and Patterns of Diversity

This volume makes an important contribution to the growing literature on the transition from school to work. It provides a unique perspective on the global changes that have transformed school-to-work transitions since the 1970s; offers an integrative conceptual framework for analysis; and promotes a comparative, cross-national understanding of school-to-work transitions in a changing social context. The articles assembled in this volume compare and assess variations in school-to-work transitions across Europe and North America, providing empirical evidence on how young people negotiate the different options and opportunities available and assessing the costs and returns associated with different transition strategies. Unlike many other volumes on this subject – which are pitched at either the macro or micro level – this volume attempts to integrate both perspectives, capturing the complexity of this critical life course transition. Furthermore, the authors address policies aimed at improving the capacity of individuals to make effective transitions and at enabling societies to better coordinate educational and occupational institutions.

Ingrid Schoon is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests focus on issues of human development across the life-span - in particular, the transition from dependent childhood to productive adulthood; the study of risk and resilience; the realization of individual potential in a changing socio-historical context; social equalities in attainment, health, and well-being; and the intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage. Schoon is currently involved in two major UK interdisciplinary research networks funded by the Economic and Research Council: the Priority Network on Gender Inequality and Production (GeNet) and the Centre for the Study of Learning and Life Chances in the Knowledge Economies (Llakes). She is also Director of PATHWAYS: an International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for the Comparative Study of Productive Youth Development, funded by the Jacobs Foundation, in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Michigan, Stockholm, Helsinki, Jena, and the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. She has published widely, including her recent publication with Cambridge University Press, Risk and Resilience: Adaptations in Changing Times.

Rainer K. Silbereisen is Professor and Head of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Jena, Adjunct Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, and Director of the Center for Applied Developmental Science, Jena. He is currently the President of the International Union of Psychological Science. His main research interests focus on human development across the life-span - particularly concerning adolescence and early adulthood - the theoretical framework of which focuses on dynamic interactionism, stressing the combined role of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural determinants of human development. Trained as a psychologist, he has been involved in interdisciplinary, large-scale research on the role of social change in positive and maladaptive human development, such as the German Collaborative Research Center on Social Development in Post-Socialist Societies (SFB 580) and the German-Israeli Research Consortium on Migration and Societal Integration. He has published widely, such as the recently edited book (with Richard Lerner) Approaches to Positive Youth Development.