Introduction

Our changing perspectives on young people's transitions across Europe are shaped by a complex weave of experience and circumstance. Of particular concern in this regard is the phenomenon of youth unemployment. This generates significant competition among those trying to enter the labour market, with two key outcomes. First, it makes the passage between school and training to work a very difficult and uncertain transition. Second, qualification requirements for jobs are currently inflating, which means that having a certain qualification does not assure a position in the labour market. This is seen to disrupt the transition to adulthood, a key factor in which is the adoption of an adult vocational identity (Hannan and O’Riain, 1993).

This concern has led to a wide range of measures in most European member states and the accretion of a vast range of experience regarding successful measures to assist young people to enter education and training and engage with the labour market (EC, 1996). However, among policy makers certain assumptions have remained intact. In particular, it is assumed that young people's achievement of independent adult identity follows a linear path – something that no longer holds true for many young people in all advanced economies. Indeed, the very idea of transition is itself in trouble. Social and economic conditions in economically advanced countries have created a paradox – young people take longer to make the transition to adult identity and independence and indeed ‘yo-yo’ back and forward between what we once knew as youth and adulthood (see Chapter Two of this volume). Although this appears to apply across all social classes, unqualified young people lacking the necessary personal, social, cultural and financial resources are most vulnerable to the enormous social and economic changes presently underway. Some of these individuals are extremely ‘disadvantaged’ and detached from social and economic integration. A key challenge for policy makers is to address their considerable difficulties regarding transitions. In this chapter, we try to analyse the phenomenon and the concept of disadvantage a bit more in depth; that is, how disadvantage is constructed and to which purpose, which individuals and groups are most likely to be classified as disadvantaged, and by which means risks of social exclusion linked with social disadvantage may be compensated.