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Austrian Youth in Transition
Austrian Youth in Transition
Thursday, 14 July 2016: 09:00-10:30
Location: Hörsaal 47 (Main Building)
RC34 Sociology of Youth (host committee) Language: English
This session addresses all topics related to the transition from youth to adulthood, focusing on young people in Austria. In Western societies adulthood is still associated with entering the labor market and starting a career, getting married and having a child, and moving out from the parents. Today there is more flexibility about which age span is considered appropriate for major transitions but there is still common sense about when young people are supposed to marry, have their first child, and move out and make their own living.
However, what is regarded appropriate depends on other social categories such as gender, social class and ethnicity. “Transitions” seem to become even longer periods in young people’s trajectories due to the increasing amount of years spent in education, increasing difficulties in entering the job market, and structural changes in the labor market which has become segregated into the traditional sector and the growing new precarious sector.
Compared to other European countries, Austria is often referred to as good practice model because of low unemployment rates and low “NEET” (Not in Education, Employment or Training) rates for young people, however, this view neglects other factors such as a segregating educational system which (re)produces social inequalities regarding successful (school-work) transitions. This session also wants to lay emphasis on the interplay of processes leading to the main markers of adulthood: stable work, leaving home, marriage, and parenthood.
Session Organizer: