Research Group on Youth, Social Change and Work

Description

Researchers involved in this research group have been working for several years on the study of youth in its different sides, in the central aspects of its development and of transition to adult life.

Education, participation and work are the three fundamental dimensions on which the analysis is focused, bearing in mind all the processes related to the transition to adult life and their life trajectory's design. Labour insertion in a world of work in deep transformation, the decision to become independent and the participation in public life are the central aspects of this group's research.

The intense stage of social change that Western societies have been experiencing for several decades now requires a thorough study of its consequences on a group that will be involved in future development stages. Work transformation, globalisation, new technologies, the crisis of national representative systems and, in recent years, the economic crisis are profoundly transforming Western societies and changing the processes of socialization.

Young people represent a group of great interest in the study of society in a double sense: on the one hand, because of their current condition and because of all the processes related to socialization and preparation for adult life, such as education, training for responsible participation in political life or transition to adult life in a phase of profound change and pluralization of family structures; on the other hand, because they are the foundation of the future society. The transition from Fordist society to post-Fordist society is entailing a deep crisis in the social structures of Western societies and a progressive decline in Institutions, as Dubet teaches us. This is linked to an intensive process of individualisation, in which the individuals themselves will have to build a new social reality, new social structures capable of organising collective life in a way more suited to the new challenges. This is the main challenge that new generations have to face, and the study of these processes must therefore be focused on the study of young people, their condition and the main processes of transformation in which they are immersed.

Globalisation, on the one hand, and the process of European unification on the other hand, also impose a comparative reflection that tries to separate the specificities of concrete contexts, of common patterns, that can help to read phenomena of global transformation, such as those caused by the digital revolution or by the intensification of international mobility. None of these processes can be properly read without resorting to the use of the gender perspective to provide the analytical gaze with the appropriate richness and depth. New phenomena such as precarious work and its consequences, new life paths, new family structures, territorial mobility and new forms of communication and participation are the phenomena at the centre of the group's research activity. For an adequate development of the research activity, the group has decided to formalize the richness of its studies in 3 lines of research.

The first one is focused on the study of work and its transformation in the digital and global society. The second one is directed towards the analysis of young people's different reactions to the crisis, and not only do we refer to the recent economic recession, but also to the structural crisis that is transforming our society at a very fast pace. Finally, the third line of research aims to analyse all the processes related to the socialization of young people, from the level of primary and informal socialization to education, understood as an institutionalized process of young people's insertion into society.

Goals CT

To promote knowledge of the condition of youth and the processes related to the transition to adult life:

To analyse their different reactions to the crisis of Fordist society and to the challenge of building new social structures.
To analyse the role and the needs for transformation of the education system as a purely Fordist institution.

Research lines

Youth response to the crisis
The latest economic recession that has hit the Western countries has revealed not only the fragility of the capitalist system and the social guarantees that have been associated for some years to Fordism, but also the existence of a deep systemic crisis of a structural rather than a conjunctural nature. Those who are young today have grown up immersed in this crisis and in the uncertainty that the ineffectiveness of social structures produces. In the face of the challenge of "growing up" in this context, young people are adopting the most diverse strategies. This line of research aims precisely to analyse what these strategies are by trying to identify the existence of patterns and construct some new theoretical categorisations. Starting with Hirshman's famous "exit, voice or loyalty", protest or conformity, the studies carried out in this line analyse the phenomenology of these reactions: processes such as emigration, protest and participation that are manifested in the new social movements, innovation as the construction of new paths, are the central phenomena of this line. The destructuring of Western societies and their organisation is generating, on the one hand, a lack of univocal orientation in the processes of socialisation in favour of the pluralisation of life paths and, on the other hand, an urgent need to build new "solutions" in the life of the community in all areas. From the models of coexistence and the pluralisation of family models, to the ways in which work is organised, including training processes, the life of young people is characterised by a very interesting mixture of conservation and innovation, of ruptures and the emergence of new identities, where subjective processes and interpersonal relations take on great importance. Hence the key use of qualitative research methodologies.
Work and its new forms
This line of research aims to research the emerging forms of work both in terms of their material insecurity and in terms of the new configuration of subjectivities that are taking shape. The recent changes in the world of work linked to cognitive work, digital work, platform capitalism and new forms of work organisation that particularly affect young people - project work, the rise of independent forms of work and freelances- are giving room to new precariousness. The aim is to research the effects of jobs in which: 1) The frontier between work and personal life is narrowing; 2) Cognitive, creative and emotional skills are expanding; those that take advantage of personal qualities and open up a whole new scenario of cognitive exploitation; 3) New business demands are being made for involvement, vocation and dedication in these jobs, which call for a "psychological contract", for the identification with the company; 4) Work is recently identified as a space for recognition, reputation, the brand of the corresponding individualisation; 5) Autonomy is glorified as a competence and as an employment situation, which leads us towards the predominance of the entrepreneurial and the independent worker figures; 6) The capacity for negotiation on wages and working conditions is low and increases precarious situations. The weakness of the trade union movement and the protective family framework - which provides support for young people in precarious situations - strengthen the negotiating power of the company, which establishes precarious material conditions with little resistance. Initially, the qualitative approach will guide the research methodologically.
Education
Current developments in the connection between the education system and the labour market make it necessary to pay attention to some effects that are already visible on the condition of young people. The first question that will be analysed in this line concerns the concept of human capital and its capacity to create new youth subjectivities that respond to the idea of the entrepreneur of oneself. This idea has been developed by political philosophy in recent decades. Human capital is a machine for activating subjects, which entrepreneurialises social relationships and introduce us the other as a competitor. This is a disturbing scenario for social and human relationships that hovers over today's youth. Human capital is connected to a series of notions such as employability or entrepreneurial spirit that guide the educational and labour conceptions of young people. The second issue studied in this line is the brain drain of Spanish young people as a result of the economic crisis of 2007. The third question refers to free work (internships, scholarships) which is increasingly becoming a compulsory requirement for young university students and opens up a whole field for possible exploitative, abusive and arbitrary practices.

Management