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Review Essay

Becoming and belonging: modern passages and transitions from childhood to adulthood

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The concept and metaphor of transition occupies a central place in child and youth studies. The concept points to changes from one state, condition or age to another. Consequently, there are strong parallels between ideas about socio-cultural transitions and developmental perspectives – but also significant differences, of course. There is a strong general appeal to the idea of there being key transitions and passages in life. Thinking about transitions in the life course makes sense. In youth studies, however, there has been a clear divide between two influential theoretical traditions: youth in transition and youth cultural studies (Johansson and Herz Citation2019). Youth cultural studies became very popular in the 1970s, particularly through the work done at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, UK. Whereas studies of youth in transition have focused on general transitions from childhood to adulthood – not least in relation to education and work – youth cultural studies have focused on the symbolic and cultural aspects of youth. Looking at textbooks and journals, such as Young and Journal of Youth Studies, transition research seems to be the dominant tradition today in the field of youth studies. Nonetheless, some researchers do address, try to discuss, and eventually also bridge the gap between the two perspectives (Bennett and Woodman Citation2015). Today, there is also a strong tendency to mix different perspectives, causing the divide between the two traditions to become less clear.

The three books reviewed in the present article provide different perspectives on and angles of approach to transitions. In the edited volume Supporting Difficult Transitions by Hedegaard and Edwards, the focus is on how professionals support and work with children, young people, and their families. In particular, the authors investigate difficult transitions into new educational and institutional environments. The authors contributing to this volume work in the area of cultural–historical theory and adopt Vygotsky’s ideas of development. In Roberts’ Young Working-Class Men in Transition, the topic is British working-class men’s transition into adulthood. Roberts sets out to challenge the image of young working-class men as being in ‘crisis’ and adhering to negative, toxic forms of traditional masculinity. The third study, Life Chances, Education and Social Movements by Munro, takes its point of departure from Ralf Dahrendorf’s classical study of life chances, looking in particular into the opportunity structures created by education. Initially, I will introduce the books separately and discuss some of their respective strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter, I will offer a more general discussion on theories of transition.

The edited volume Supporting Difficult Transitions by Mariane Hedegaard and Anne Edwards consists of 12 chapters. The authors write about different aspects of challenging transitions that take place in children’s and young people’s lives. These challenges range from young people with autistic spectrum conditions entering the workplace in the UK, to entry into day-care among children from hunting and fishing communities in Greenland. In Chapter 1, the concepts that bring coherence to the anthology are presented. Following Vygotsky, the editors stress the importance of the social situation to development at a given age. Many of the concepts introduced are intuitive. The three main concepts – relational expertise, common knowledge, and relational agency – address professionals’ competence and ability to develop mutual understandings and fruitful collaborations. According to the editors, using a wholistic approach – focusing on the interaction between people, activities, situations, and socio-political conditions – enhances professionals’ collaborations and attempts to support and facilitate children’s and young people’s transitions. The psychologist’s role, for example, is not to be an isolated expert, but rather a collaborator with other professionals, creating dialogues and assisting in promoting the child’s zone of development.

Whereas the two introductory chapters are theoretically oriented, the remaining chapters are closer to practice and to professionals’ ambitions to help children and young people enter into school and other institutions. The chapters are marinated in the cultural–historical school’s developmental perspectives. There is also a somewhat irritating tendency to, in every single chapter, repeat and ‘lecture’ about the central concepts and perspectives of the Vygotskian School. A more thorough editing of the book would have benefited the authors. In Chapter 8, the focus is on the transition of Roma children into school in Spain. The authors of this chapter address the challenges faced by the school in meetings with Roma families. Whereas the school, according to the authors, focuses on the individual, the Roma community stresses the importance of the family and the collective. One key to a successful approach and to intercultural education is to create spaces of intersubjectivity and establish a shared narrative. In this chapter, two successful educational projects are presented. Enabling Roma children to make the transition to school means adjusting how the school approaches the local Roma community. Through dialogues, meeting spaces, and collaborations, the teachers can facilitate productive encounters between the school and the Roma community. In Chapter 11, the experiences of young adults living with psychiatric problems are explored. At a private social-psychiatric facility in Copenhagen, the ambition is to help young adults to reconnect and become part of a community. Looking at psychiatric problems in relation to disconnected and disconnecting activities, the professionals approach the need to co-construct new joint activities. Inspired by the Vygotskian approach, the professionals working in the facility focus on creating joint encounters and activities. Instead of hiding behind professional roles, and traditions, the psychologist uses everyday activities – such as baking cakes, running, and taking long walks – to empower clients. Exploring the city by foot, visiting different coffee shops, and talking all become the ‘medicine’.

Although this edited volume aims to show the strengths of applying a Vygotskian perspective to different professional practices, it does not convince the reader of the excellence of using this framework. Many of the concepts – such as relational expertise and common knowledge – are too close to everyday life practices and, consequently, too descriptive. Moreover, the whole idea that people use language to reflect, and that development must be understood in a socio-cultural context, is common sense today. In addition, the transition perspective seems somewhat superfluous, and it is not developed in a more theoretical manner, but rather taken for granted. In addition, some of the chapters simply provide accounts of different evaluations carried out in schools and other institutions. The quality of the chapters is quite uneven, which makes the reading somewhat tiring.

The next book, Young Working-Class Men in Transition by the Australian sociologist Steven Roberts, can be placed in the tradition of sociological transition research. In this monograph, the focus lies on young working-class men’s transition into adulthood. Already in the preface, the ambition to disrupt existing stereotypes of the working-class man is announced. In the introduction to the book, a UK survey documenting how people score themselves on a six-point gender continuum is laid out. The results revealed, for example, that 42% of men under 24 years of age felt that masculinity has negative connotations. The survey also showed that there is a generational decline in clear identifications with masculinity/femininity. Rather, young people seem to be increasingly flexible and open when it comes to their gender identifications.

Robert’s study is firmly based in a sociological transition perspective. In Chapter 1, he discusses different theoretical approaches to youth transitions. He stresses the importance of the changing economic, political, and social context in which young people make their transitions into adulthood. Although critical of modernity theory, Roberts also discusses the contributions of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. He states: ‘I have tended towards emphasising structure’. Having said this, he continues to put forward a more open and flexible position. The aim of the book is to focus on changes and continuities in the lives of young working-class men.

Roberts argues skilfully that more nuanced and empirically based research on young working-class men is needed. He rejects the idea of ‘masculinity in crisis’, arguing that the discourse and trope of a crisis seems to fit well into different political agendas, which explains its longevity. All the talk about a crisis in masculinity promotes the idea that men form a homogeneous category, which is obviously not the case. Next, Roberts turns his attention to a number of classical studies of working-class boys and men. The most paradigmatic of these studies is Paul Willis’ Learning to Labour. Although Roberts has great respect for this classic study, he also suggests that it has contributed to caricaturing working-class masculinities for decades. Instead of investigating a broad spectrum of working-class boys’ experiences and presenting a nuanced picture, the lads become representatives of all working-class boys. Anoop Nayak, Linda McDowell, and Michael Ward also launch a similar critique of other studies. In all of these studies, working-class masculinity corresponds with traditional and stereotypical representations, such as homophobia, misogyny, racism, and male-breadwinner ideals. Roberts’ mission is to challenge these representations and ways of portraying working-class masculinity.

When trying to understand young working-class men’s transitions into adulthood, Roberts brings in a heavy theoretical framework. He is well read in critical studies on men and masculinity. His discussion of the concept of hegemonic masculinity is innovative and well developed. Bringing in Anderson’s concept of inclusive masculinity, and both a generational perspective and Bourdieu’s theory of capital and habitus, makes this study a theoretical adventure. Roberts also succeeds in convincing the reader of the need for a multifaceted theoretical approach. The study was conducted in the county of Kent, UK. The empirical material consists of repeated interviews with male front-line retail employees 18–24 years old – or, as Roberts describes this sample, ‘ordinary young people’. Overall, 24 people participated in the study. Following the young men over a seven-year time period provides a rich and interesting perspective on transitions and change.

In the main part of the book, we get a closer look at how the 24 young working-class men approach education and the labour market. Dropping out from higher education, the young men follow a traditional pattern, but working-class men are also increasingly attracted to higher education. All of the 24 men were employed in front-line customer-facing service work. The findings suggest that there is a strong customer orientation, and that the men are embracing a communicative and emotionally charged pattern of social interaction. The emotional boundary work necessary to perform in the retail business does not frighten the young men at all. Roberts argues that the young men have developed a habitus and disposition that enable them to transgress earlier gender boundaries. Furthermore, this can be interpreted in line with theories of inclusive masculinity. Seven years after the initial data collection, only three of the men remained in front-line service work. The explanation lies in economic factors rather than in a general dislike of service jobs, according to Roberts. Looking more closely at the young men’s family life, a strong egalitarian perspective emerges. Roberts finds a reconstruction of masculinity, and young men who are leaning towards a more gender equal and participatory masculinity. Being feminized no longer poses a threat to the young men’s identities. Roberts’ investigation into these young men’s lives includes a study of how they expose themselves on social media. He argues that the data show a much more nuanced and richer image of what it means to be a working-class man. Male misogyny and homophobia are more or less absent from the interviews and data.

Roberts’ study makes an important contribution to the sociology of working-class men’s transitions into adulthood. In contrast to earlier studies that have lifted forward and promoted stereotypical images of working-class youth, Roberts succeeds in writing up another and more nuanced narrative of class and gender. This book provides a rich, complex and up-to-date analysis of key transitions in the life of a number of young working-class men. In addition, it brings together a number of highly relevant theoretical perspectives in an innovative manner. The book also points to a widening gap in critical studies on men and masculinities between theories of hegemonic masculinity and theories of inclusive masculinity. I would suggest that there is a need to address this gap and to try to develop a third space, where structuralist theories of power can meet more agency-oriented theoretical approaches.

The Australian sociologist Lyle Munro does not use the concept of transitions at all in Life Chances, Education and Social Movements. Instead, he introduces the concept of life chances. There are, of course, certain similarities between these two approaches to people’s opportunities and possibilities to develop, change, and create their own lives. The major influence on Munro’s book is Ralf Dahrendorf’s classical work, Life Chances: Approaches to Social and Political Theory, published in 1979. This 40-year-old study is still relevant, according to Munro. When writing this book, Dahrendorf was inspired by Max Weber’s theories on Lebenchancen and his broader economic-sociological perspective. The life chance concept captures the chance of staying alive after birth, remaining healthy, developing skills and the capacity to survive, completing an intermediary or higher education, and developing an occupational career: in short, the chance of making the transition from childhood to adulthood. Dahrendorf’s theory leans on options and ligatures. That is, options in the form of life chances, and ligatures in the form of social bonds that facilitate development. At the beginning of the book, Munro already states that the greatest provider of life chances is education. The book also focuses heavily on education and the Australian educational system. The other central axis in the book is social movement theory. Munro makes a sharp contrast between life chances and lifestyles. Whereas he is in favour of the concept of life chances, he is critical of the discussion of lifestyles, life plans, and self-therapy. He essentially argues that, if we are to understand the collapse of the school-to-work transition, we must identify and take into account factors such as poverty, inequal opportunities, and social position. Consequently, he is critical of modernity theory, in particular the writings of Anthony Giddens. Munro sees little value in talking about lifestyles in relation to a reflexive self-identity project.

The notion of life chances is not only connected to socio-material conditions, upbringing, and individual trajectories, but also to generation and history. In a fascinating chapter, Munro accounts for a number of generational and longitudinal studies. The famous sociologist Norbert Elias conducted one of these studies. Elias initiated the project on Leicester’s working-class baby boomers in the 1960s. Using data from 882 interviews with teenagers (75% boys and 25% girls), who had left school between 1962 and 1964, Elias wanted to know how these young people adjusted to life. The data were never analysed, however. Later on, 50 years later, Goodwin and O’Connor discovered the material and began conducting follow-up interviews. They succeeded in interviewing 97 of the original subjects. The findings showed that many of the youngsters were disappointed when they entered the labour force. They found work hard and unrewarding. However, the men, in particular, also developed strong occupational identities. Very few of them, however, continued working in the same occupation, due to the recession and de-industrialization. At the time, the young workers thought they had found a job for life, but this all changed in the 1970s and 1980s. The re-examination of the 1960s generation showed that the school-to-work transition had not been smooth at all, but rather complex, uncertain, and filled with risks.

Munro talks about the inequality spectrum. Life chances can be located somewhere in between disadvantage and well-being. Disadvantage is easier to investigate, as it is defined by poverty and material conditions, whereas well-being is more a state of being, a social psychological mechanism. In Chapter 3, Munro discusses the twists and turns in the concept of well-being. He introduces Helen Pearson’s Life Project study. Her study recorded both biomedical and social scientific data. It started in 1946. Every child born during a one-week period in the UK in March 1946 was included in the study, resulting in a total of 5362 babies. These babies were tracked until the 1970s, making this one of the longest-running cohort studies in the world. The findings indicate that disadvantaged children with reading difficulties and learning problems continued to decline in their school results. There was a clear downward spiral. The researchers found that parental support was one of the most important factors in securing the child’s future. Pearson’s cohort studies continued well into our time. New cohorts were created and studied. In 2000, 19,000 babies were recruited and studied. Many of these children were found to be healthier and taller than the children from 1946, but obesity had also increased. The results thus far also show that it is possible to discern the same patterns seen in the 1946 cohort; that is, disadvantage and poverty are being reproduced, and children who start out disadvantaged are destined to experience low life chances.

In the remaining chapters of the book, the focus shifts to a number of social movements in Australia. In Chapter 5, the widening participation movement is described and analysed. Munro is in favour of the idea of increasing under-represented groups’ participation in higher education, but he also raises some doubts. In particular, he sees an increasing focus on lucrative enrolments of students to higher education. Instead of thinking through the benefits and necessary conditions of recruiting what he calls unprepared students to higher education, the universities have become companies looking primarily to their economy and not to quality. He concludes: ‘Under these conditions it is inevitable that academic standards will decline, along with the morale of academics and the reputation of the university itself’ (p. 115).

In the following chapters, Munro discusses the life-long learning movement, and different kinds of grass-root movements – based on engagement in questions of class, gender, racism, and so forth – and he seems perfectly fine with this type of engagement in identity politics. Actually, it is not easy to grasp and identify the key arguments in the latter part of the book. The first part of the book and the discussion on life chances read well. It is also easy to follow the arguments, and the theoretical perspective laid out. In addition, it is easy to accept the discussion of the central importance of education in enhancing the life quality and well-being of young people. However, the sections on social movements do not fit easily into the discussion on life chances and education. At the end of the book, it seems as though Munro is putting forward an idea about how to combine vocational and academic education, especially by stressing the key importance of apprenticeship. He also talks about creating a balance between different occupations. Not everyone can become a professor; there must be some differentiation. Someone has to become a carpenter, a service worker, and so on. This reconnects to Munro’s scepticism about recruiting ‘unprepared students’ to the university. Every man in his place.

The three books reviewed offer us different perspectives on transitions and life chances. They differ in many respects; for example, theoretically, ranging from developmental psychology to social movement research. Whereas the Vygotskian perspective focuses a great deal on how to enhance learning processes, and how to help children and young people in precarious positions to get on with their lives – also zooming in on detailed cognitive and emotional processes – the theory of life chances takes a broader view on how living conditions and socio-material conditions affect the life quality and well-being of young people. In relation to these perspectives, Roberts’ transition study stands out as a reflective and critical one, focused on how we can understand the life conditions and subjective experiences of young working-class men. The aim of his study is not merely to present an empirical case study of young working-class men, but also to criticize earlier, more stereotypical portrayals of these men.

The whole notion of life as a transitional process, and as being structured in sequences or phases, captures the essence of modernity. Roberts and Munro are highly critical of Giddens’ (Citation1991) theory of late modernity, but nevertheless their own theoretical fundaments are partially dependent on modernity theory. Today, there has been something of a revival of modernity theory in youth studies. In studies on masculinity, transitions, and modernity among young boys, the focus has been on how the increase in risk-taking and the process of individualization create insecure and complex transitions among young men, in relation to both life (from school to work) and identity (from boy to man). If we are to understand and analyse transitions in contemporary society, we need to take an elaborated and sophisticated theoretical approach. Approaching transitions as historical and socio-cultural processes is necessary. Munro’s elaborations on generations and how the fundamental socio-material conditions of a generation have an impact on transitional processes is highly relevant. Moreover, there is a need for a more reflexive approach in studies on how class, gender, and ‘race’ transform and structure the life trajectories and transitions of children and young people. Roberts’ contribution lies, in particular, in his sensitive and reflective way of approaching class. Instead of reproducing stereotypes and homogeneous images of class, Roberts succeeds in pointing out a methodological and theoretical way of approaching studies on young working-class men – an approach that could just as well have been used in studies on young women.

Finally, the three books reviewed here provide us with different methodological and theoretical tools that can be used in child and youth studies. At present, there is a need for more theoretical groundwork in child and youth studies, enabling bridges to be created between children’s and young people’s voices and expressions, on the one hand, and societal and cultural transformations, on the other. In addition, there is also a need to create bridges and connections between childhood studies and youth studies, not least regarding theoretical and methodological perspectives and approaches.

References

  • Bennett, A., and D. Woodman. 2015. Youth Cultures, Transitions, and Generations. Bridging the Gap in Youth Research. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Johansson, T., and M. Herz. 2019. Youth Studies in Transition: Culture, Generation and New Learning Processes. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.