Youth Marginality in Britain : Contemporary studies of austerity

Tabloid headlines such as ‘Anti-social Feral Youth,’ ‘Vile Products of Welfare in the UK’ and ‘One in Four Adolescents is a Criminal’ have in recent years obscured understanding of what social justice means for young people and how they experience it. Youth marginality in Britain offers a new perspective by promoting young people’s voices and understanding the agency behind their actions. It explores different forms of social marginalisation within media, culture and society, focusing on how young people experience social discrimination at a personal and collective level.

This collection from a wide range of expert contributors showcases contemporary research on multiple youth deprivation of personal isolation, social hardship, gender and ethnic discrimination and social stigma. With a foreword from Robert MacDonald, it explores the intersection of race, gender, class, asylum seeker status and care leavers in Britain, placing them in the broader context of austerity, poverty and inequality to highlight both change and continuity within young people’s social and cultural identities.

This timely contribution to debates concerning youth austerity in Britain is suitable for students across youth studies, sociology, education, criminology, youth work and social policy.

Professor of Education at Greenwich University and Visiting Fellow at New College Oxford, Patrick Ainley taught in schools, colleges and universities, writing on youth and education From School to YTS 1988 to Lost Generation? 2010.

Shane Blackman is a Professor of Cultural Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He received his PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London as an ESRC scholarship student. He is a Research Fellow SFI The Danish National Centre for Social Research, editor of the Journal of Youth Studies and YOUNG: Nordic Journal of Youth Research and a member of the ESRC Peer Review College. He has recently published work on ethnography, subcultural theory, NPS (legal highs), anti-social behaviour and alcohol and young women.

Ruth Rogers is a Reader in Social Justice and Inclusion at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has led a large number of research projects working with deprived communities, looked after children and young offenders. She has also conducted research for a range of research councils, voluntary agencies, local authorities and central government. She is interested in research investigating youth and communities on the 'margins', particularly in relation to looked after children, informal support networks and educational disadvantage.