What of the youth? Aspirations and survival strategies from the Eastern Cape

Abstract

A survey of black matriculants in Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown revealed that career aspirations were somewhat more modest than is popularly assumed and that these differed according to the immediate material circumstances and also the presence or absence of role models during the socialisation process. Such differences have important implications for unemployment relief programmes.

Notes

The financial assistance of the HSRC is gratefully acknowledged. The research findings are more fully contained in Haines & Wood (1993).

Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Port Elizabeth, and Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology, Rhodes University.