Regional lifelong learning policies and the social vulnerability of young adults in Girona and Vienna

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interface between lifelong learning policies and the definition of social vulnerability of young adults in two regions located within the European Union. Girona comprises a constellation of small towns with important industry, service and hospitality sectors. Vienna is a global city where many key international operators are based and employ a large number of highly qualified professionals. The article explores to what extent the meta-governance and the ‘causal narratives’ of lifelong learning policies contribute towards shaping the prevailing images of youth vulnerability in these regions. In Girona, bureaucratic governance patterns lifelong learning policies, which strongly rely on the potential of career guidance to encourage the youth to undertake further education. Correspondingly, policy designs and professional discourses emphasise that the beneficiaries previously failed at school. In Vienna, authorities govern lifelong learning by means of both bureaucracy and complex networks of employers and non-profit organisations. The ‘causal narrative’ of the policies straightforwardly claims that all youth must have an experience with employment, whether in apprenticeships or in transitional workshops that emulate real jobs. There, policies portray beneficiaries according to their capacity to undertake and finish apprenticeships.

KEYWORDS:

• Lifelong learning
• young adults
• vulnerability
• functional regions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. YOUNG_ADULLLT is the acronym of the European project ‘Policies Supporting Young People in their Life Course. A Comparative Perspective of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe’. The European Commission funds YOUNG_ADULLLT under the call H2020-YOUNG-SOCIETY-2015 (Contract Number: 693,167). The following partners conducted the study between 2016 and 2019: University of Freiburg, University of Frankfurt, Plovdiv University, South-West University of Blagoevgrad, University of Zagreb, University of Glasgow, University of Lisbon, University of Porto, Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Genoa, University of Vienna, University of Granada, University of Turku and European Research Services GmbH. The University of Münster coordinates the project. Project website: http://www.young-adulllt.eu.

Additional information

Funding

The research on which this article draws has been funded by the European Commission under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the Contract Number: 693167 (YOUNG_ADULLLT);European Commission Horizon 2020 [grant agreement No 693167];

Notes on contributors

Xavier Rambla

Xavier Rambla is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). In recent years, he has participated in research on education and lifelong learning policies in the European Union, on the Civil Society Education Fund as well as on Education for All in Latin America. Rambla is co-convenor of the education policy network of the European Educational Research Association. He has been a short-term invited lecturer in the areas of education and social sciences in several European and Latin American universities.

Yuri Kazepov

Yuri Kazepov is Professor of International Urban Sociology in the University of Vienna and also teaches comparative social policy. His main research interests include comparative multi-level governance arrangements, scale relations, urban poverty, social innovation and inequalities. In particular, he is interested in the emerging opportunity structures that arise from different configurations and the way in which institutional configurations mediate between macroprocesses and microstrategies.

Judith Jacovkis

Judith Jacovkis is postdoctoral researcher at the UAB and the University of Glasgow. She is researcher at the Globalisation, Education and Social Policies (GEPS) group, where she works on cash transfer social policies, inequalities and educational policies addressed to vulnerable groups. She is currently involved in different research projects addressing the politics, governance and experience of educational trajectories and transitions.

Lukas Alexander

Lukas Alexander is a researcher at the University of Vienna, where he studied Sociology and Political Science. His scientific focus encompasses the labour market and social policy, administrative institutions and governance networks. He is currently involved in a European research project examining the effects of territorial cohesion on economic growth, spatial justice and democratic capacities.

Marcelo Parreira Do Amaral

Marcelo Parreira Do Amaral is Professor of International and Comparative Education at the University of Münster, Germany. Parreira do Amaral is member of NESET II (Network of Experts in the Social Aspects of Education) funded by the European Commission. His main research interests include international comparative education, education policy, international educational governance and its implications for educational trajectories, in particular issues of access to and equity in education.