Youth as/in Crisis

Internationally, there is a growing argument amongst policy makers and academics that broadening spectrums of young adults are 'at-risk' of various types of material, social, physical, and cultural insecurity. In this way, the traditional identification of transitions from youth to adulthood, marked by points of permanence such as stable employment, are beginning to fray. Through various academic, popular, and policy literatures, young people today are imagined as being both 'threatened' by social inequality as well as a 'threat' against which our notions of security and social cohesion are constructed. This edited collection includes empirical and theoretical work concerning the relationships between youth/young adults, public policy, and educational research, with its primary focus being new forms of public policy in Canada that, we argue, are emblematic of international policy instruments examining the policy and economic participation of young people. Examining key sites of youth participation, including post-secondary institutions, community-based programs, and work/employment programs, the included case studies examine how young people navigate and learn from everyday experiences of marginalization and violence while at the same time illuminating how these experiences are organized and reproduced through the very institutions that are meant to shape young people's engagement in society.

Internationally, there is a growing argument amongst policy makers and academics that broadening spectrums of young adults are ‘at-risk’ of various types of material, social, physical, and cultural insecurity. In this way, the traditional identification of transitions from youth to adulthood, marked by points of permanence such as stable employment, are beginning to fray. Through various academic, popular, and policy literatures, young people today are imagined as being both ‘threatened’ by social inequality as well as a ‘threat’ against which our notions of security and social cohesion are constructed. This edited collection includes empirical and theoretical work concerning the relationships between youth/young adults, public policy, and educational research, with its primary focus being new forms of public policy in Canada that, we argue, are emblematic of international policy instruments examining the policy and economic participation of young people. Examining key sites of youth participation, including post-secondary institutions, community-based programs, and work/employment programs, the included case studies examine how young people navigate and learn from everyday experiences of marginalization and violence while at the same time illuminating how these experiences are organized and reproduced through the very institutions that are meant to shape young people’s engagement in society.

Acknowledgements; Youth, Policy, and Research; Part One: Theorizing Young People; “Youth” as Theory, Method, and Praxis; Critical Youth Participatory Action Research: Ideology, Consciousness, and Praxis; Part Two: Youth, Public Policy, and Programs; Alternative Futures for Work-Related and Vocational Education: Stratification and Entrepreneurialism; The “Youth” Crisis in Nova Scotia: An Examination of Masked Relations; The Ontario Youth Outreach Worker Program as Racialized Spatial Praxis; Difference Is: Sexual and Gender Minority Youth and Young Adults and the Challenges to Be and Belong in Canada; Part Three: Youth and the Politics of Learning; Where Do I Begin? Educational Citizenship and Sexual Minority International Students in Ontario; “Isn’t the Right to an Education a Human Right?” Experiences of Precarious Immigration Status Youth Navigating Post-Secondary Education; Exploring Transitions of Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men in Canadian Urban Contexts; The Politics of Participation: The Progressive Potential of Young Adults’ Formal Political Engagement; Youth, Crisis, and Learning: The Experiences of Ontarian Young Adults in a Leadership Development Program; About the Authors; Index.