The Secret of Eternal Youth: Identity, risk and learning difficulties

Abstract

Post-war theories of 'youth' as a transitional phase of life are reviewed in terms of their common assumption about the formation of a stable adult identity. The post-modern challenge to the assumption of a stable self is outlined together with attempts by theorists of late modernity to hold structure and agency in creative tension. People with learning difficulties, it is argued, represent an abnormal transition in a Learning Society, thus enabling us to understand the nature of transition and identity in such a society more clearly. Ethnographic case studies of a man of 23, a man of 33 and a woman of 43, all being Down's Syndrome, are presented. The limits of their transition to full adulthood are specified in terms of four key markers of adulthood. The paper concludes by reflecting on the purchase of different theories of youth and identity, and on the politics of learning difficulties.