Young people and contradictions of inclusion

A. Lopez Blasco is Head of Research at the Association of Regional and European Analysis in Valencia, Spain. W. McNeish is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland. A. Walther is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Regional Innovation and Social Research in Tubingen, Germany, and coordinator of the European research network EGRIS (European Group for Integrated Social Research).

• 4/6/03 from draft tsContents: Introduction: young people and contradictions of inclusion Andreas Walther; Part One: Risks and contradictions in young people's transitions to work: Yo-yo-transitions and misleading trajectories: towards integrated transition policies for young adults in Europe Manuela du Bois-Reymond and Andreu López Blasco; Youth unemployment and the risk of social exclusion: comparative analysis of qualitative data Thomas Kieselbach; Part Two: European research on young people and transition policies: Transition policies: strategies of actors and employment policies for young people in Europe Lorenzo Cachón Rodríguez; The European strategy for youth employment: a discursive analysis Amparo Serrano Pascual; State policies for youth unemployment in the European Union: rights, responsibilities and life-long learning Wallace McNeish and Patricia Loncle; Transitional labour markets and training: re-balancing flexibility and security for life-long learning Harm van Lieshout and Ton Wilthagen; The third sector: ghetto for the disadvantaged or springboard toward integration? Paul Burgess; The art of learning: empowerment through performing arts Steven Miles; Part Three: Dilemmas and perspectives of integrated transition policies: Empowerment or 'cooling out'? Dilemmas and contradictions of transition policies Andreas Walther; Competence and employability Sven Mørch and Barbara Stalder; Of roofs and knives: the dilemmas of recognising informal learning José Machado Pais and Axel Pohl; Flexibility and security: the supposed dilemma of transition policies Barbara Stauber, Siyka Kovacheva and Harm van Lieshout; 'Disadvantage': transition policies between social construction and the needs of vulnerable youth Dermot Stokes and René Bendit.

"This book provides valuable insights into young people's transitions to work in modern societies, and into the (in)adequacies of policies intended to support these transitions. With its main objectives, to develop a more qualitative, holistic approach to young people's transitions and to bridge the gap between transition research and policy, the book raises challenging issues for social scientists and policy makers." Rik van Berkel, Department of General Social Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands