This book shows the significance of devolved policy differences for understanding work and welfare relating to young people. It begins with the question of how do devolved policies address youth unemployment and work insecurity? Viewed through a decentralised and street-level perspective, this question has guided a cross-jurisdictional analysis not possible when state boundaries are firmly drawn as they are in methodological nationalism. We have gained perspectives from people working within civil society and with young people on the ground to learn about the lived experience of theoretical duality in policy divergence and convergence. These experiences address the second question of how does a better understanding of devolved variations critique the privileging of methodological nationalism? They do so by revealing the impact of decentralisation on the day-to-day lives of people living at the intersection of reserved and devolved policy, not visible in top-level data categorising regimes by nation-state. Many subtle but significant variations, viewed through qualitative, decentralised perspectives, have had real-world impacts. Young people are more likely to receive wrap-around and holistic support to tackle the barriers to employment in Scotland and Wales, and more importantly to improve their lives and wellbeing.

Expanding on governance, work insecurity and marketisation and the role of civil society in responding to these contexts, the ideology underpinning policy in devolved territories creates a very different policy ecosystem.