Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2015, Page 31

UPPELDI OG MENNTUN/ICELANDIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 24(2) 2015 31
GESTUR GUÐMUNDSSON
Transition to adulthood: International research traditions
and their message to Icelandic educational research
ABSTRACT
The article contains a historical overview of central traditions in the study of the
transition of youth to adulthood. These studies are part of the broader research field
of youth studies, often seen as one of two main strands of these studies, the other
being the strand of youth culture. The article provides the argument that there should
not be a rigid separation between these two strands. In some periods, especially the
1960s and 1970s, the limelight of researchers and readers was rather on youth culture
studies – cultures of deviance, subcultures, cultures of resistance, and broader “com-
mon cultures” of youth. Studies of youth transitions were less spectacular and often
limited to entrance into the labour market. However, the great transformation of such
transitions that achieved particular strength in the 1980s, shifted transition studies to
the centre of youth studies. At the same time more sophisticated theories of transition
were developed, not least based on Ulrich Beck’s theories of risk society, reflexivity
and individualisation, and informed by gender studies and studies of ethnic and other
minorities. An integral part of the 1990s agendas of transition studies was based on
qualitative approaches and drew upon existing traditions of the study of biographies,
life courses, and life histories. Main inspirations were found in the USA (with roots in
Chicago), a German tradition of studying biographical narratives and French studies
of generational continuity and change in life histories.
Britain has been the country which most generously funded transition studies,
especially at the turn of the century. Various approaches have been used, and the
British research results have become a main reference for studies in other countries.
However, it has become clear that the British history is somewhat exceptional, not least
the swift vanishing of the youth labour market in Britain in the 1980s, and research-
ers have paid growing attention to the varying patterns of transition found, even in
the countries of the European Union. A handful of European projects have studied
these divergent patterns and even launched a theoretical model of different transition
regimes, drawing upon Esping-Andersen’s model of welfare regimes. Here the uni-
versalistic regimes of the Nordic countries contrast the liberal regime of the United
Kingdom, the subprotective (family and church-based) model of southern Europe and
the employment centred regimes of German-speaking countries. However, a closer
scrutiny reveals that all European countries mix elements of the different regimes and
perhaps this regime model should be seen as an ideal type model.
A central discussion of the transition analyses and debates has been the question
of choices. Beck related his theories to German biographical research and pointed out
that new generations increasingly tell their life stories as a series of choices, while the
narratives of older generations rather referred to reigning norms at various stages
of their lives. Some scholars have criticised the Beck-based approach for neoliberal