R. Maithreyi is currently the Strategic Lead of the Adolescent Thematic in the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru, India. She completed her PhD from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. She has a training both in psychology (with a specialization in child guidance) and sociology of education and childhood. Her research interests span childhood and youth studies, skilling and education. Maithreyi has previously worked as a practising child psychologist at the Parijma Neurodiagnostic and Rehabilitation Centre, Bengaluru. Currently, she also leads a national study for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the World Health Organization on ‘Mapping adolescent vulnerabilities in India.’ Maithreyi has been invited to present her work on youth, skills and empowerment at several international conferences and workshops, and has published papers on the same in several international journals such as Childhood and Comparative Education.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Framing Youth in Contemporary TimesThe Skilling Economy and Youth at RiskCultures of Schooling in IndiaSchooling, Skilling and a Range of Actors Redefining ‘Educated Youth’Life Skills Education as Pedagogies of ‘Discipline’Ends of Discipline: Curricular Transactions and Social Reproduction of IdentitiesCultural Disconnects and the Possibilities for Subject FormationConclusionAppendicesBibliographyIndex

Combining nuanced ethnographic insights with rich theoretical perspectives, this book represents the contradictory positioning of India’s youth as either ‘population dividend’ or as masses of troublemakers. As Maithreyi explicates, ‘life-skills’ training for disadvantaged youth entails attempts to fit them into the dominant class and cultural capital apparatus and the subsequent rendering of life-skills training as meaningless to their life-worlds. The book will be a landmark study that provides insights into the trajectories of mainstream education, the misplaced orientation that overlooks the agency of youth and the personal disorientation and systemic distortions that ensue. A mustread for all educationists and education policymakers.

R. Maithreyi is currently the Strategic Lead of the Adolescent Thematic in the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru, India. She completed her PhD from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. She has a training both in psychology (with a specialization in child guidance) and sociology of education and childhood. Her research interests span childhood and youth studies, skilling and education. Maithreyi has previously worked as a practising child psychologist at the Parijma Neurodiagnostic and Rehabilitation Centre, Bengaluru. Currently, she also leads a national study for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the World Health Organization on ‘Mapping adolescent vulnerabilities in India.’ Maithreyi has been invited to present her work on youth, skills and empowerment at several international conferences and workshops, and has published papers on the same in several international journals such as Childhood and Comparative Education.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Framing Youth in Contemporary TimesThe Skilling Economy and Youth at RiskCultures of Schooling in IndiaSchooling, Skilling and a Range of Actors Redefining ‘Educated Youth’Life Skills Education as Pedagogies of ‘Discipline’Ends of Discipline: Curricular Transactions and Social Reproduction of IdentitiesCultural Disconnects and the Possibilities for Subject FormationConclusionAppendicesBibliographyIndex

Combining nuanced ethnographic insights with rich theoretical perspectives, this book represents the contradictory positioning of India’s youth as either ‘population dividend’ or as masses of troublemakers. As Maithreyi explicates, ‘life-skills’ training for disadvantaged youth entails attempts to fit them into the dominant class and cultural capital apparatus and the subsequent rendering of life-skills training as meaningless to their life-worlds. The book will be a landmark study that provides insights into the trajectories of mainstream education, the misplaced orientation that overlooks the agency of youth and the personal disorientation and systemic distortions that ensue. A mustread for all educationists and education policymakers.

R. Maithreyi is currently the Strategic Lead of the Adolescent Thematic in the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru, India. She completed her PhD from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. She has a training both in psychology (with a specialization in child guidance) and sociology of education and childhood. Her research interests span childhood and youth studies, skilling and education. Maithreyi has previously worked as a practising child psychologist at the Parijma Neurodiagnostic and Rehabilitation Centre, Bengaluru. Currently, she also leads a national study for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the World Health Organization on ‘Mapping adolescent vulnerabilities in India.’ Maithreyi has been invited to present her work on youth, skills and empowerment at several international conferences and workshops, and has published papers on the same in several international journals such as Childhood and Comparative Education.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Framing Youth in Contemporary TimesThe Skilling Economy and Youth at RiskCultures of Schooling in IndiaSchooling, Skilling and a Range of Actors Redefining ‘Educated Youth’Life Skills Education as Pedagogies of ‘Discipline’Ends of Discipline: Curricular Transactions and Social Reproduction of IdentitiesCultural Disconnects and the Possibilities for Subject FormationConclusionAppendicesBibliographyIndex

Combining nuanced ethnographic insights with rich theoretical perspectives, this book represents the contradictory positioning of India’s youth as either ‘population dividend’ or as masses of troublemakers. As Maithreyi explicates, ‘life-skills’ training for disadvantaged youth entails attempts to fit them into the dominant class and cultural capital apparatus and the subsequent rendering of life-skills training as meaningless to their life-worlds. The book will be a landmark study that provides insights into the trajectories of mainstream education, the misplaced orientation that overlooks the agency of youth and the personal disorientation and systemic distortions that ensue. A mustread for all educationists and education policymakers.