Myra Hamilton and Lorenza Antonucci
This stream will explore the way social policy supports young people, including as they negotiate major life course-stage transitions through adolescence and into adulthood. The stream will explore the specific needs of young people and associated claims on the policy and service infrastructure compared with policies and services targeted at adults or families with younger children. Social policy problems concerning young people such as inequalities, social exclusion and labour market insecurity are an area of growing interest in the European social policy literature and have invited interest at previous ESPAnet conferences.
The stream would expect to receive submissions on:
- Young people and ‘life-course transitions’ in Europe: policies that support young people through major transitions such as secondary to tertiary education, entering the labour market and early experiences of labour market participation, living independently, and forming a family.
- Effects of the economic crisis on young people in Europe: papers exploring young people and labour market risks, youth unemployment and underemployment in Europe.
- Young people and the welfare state: papers on income support and other social provisions for young people participating in education, experiencing periods of unemployment or parenthood, and young peoples’ participation in pensions schemes.
- Youth and inequalities: papers which explore intra-generational and inter-generational inequalities and their social policy responses.
- Youth poverty and social exclusion: papers which examine and evaluate services for particular disadvantaged groups of young people (homeless young people, young people with disability, young carers), and services that facilitate young peoples’ participation in social or recreational activities including those with a place or neighbourhood-based focus.
- Young peoples’ engagement in policy processes, activism among European youth and issues of political representation in European welfare states.
We expect to receive comparative analyses, case-studies, and potential methodological contributions to analysing youth social policies in Europe.