The Passage from Youth to Adulthood explores a society unanchored from culturally endorsed rites of passage, in which young people and adults appear to build their identities within a culture of dependency. In this book, author Pierluca Birindelli interviews Italian young adults still living with their parents, and focuses on how those individuals view the bedroom and the objects therein. From there, he analyzes self-narrations and longer autobiographies written by university students, measuring his impressions against sociological, psychological, and anthropological literature. Birindelli explores the paradigm of what he calls “intergenerational collusion,” in which fathers and sons are playing to the same script, heedless of the common good, the other, and the future. Finally, integrating the experience of young Americans abroad sparks transcultural reflections about the concept of play and the authenticity of social performance.

First Published in 1995. This original and timely analysis of the transition from youth to adulthood breaks with traditional ideas about the labour market and demographic processes and makes an important and general contribution to understanding social change. Significant developments in the timing and experience of transition have not been satisfactorily addressed, nor understood in relation to general change in household and employment structure, Using primary data gathered in a survey of young adults and their parents, and existing evidence on the organisation of employment and demographic trends, the author analyses developments in the social organisation of dependence, independence and obligation. Delayed parenting and other aspects of the 'rights of passage' are explored in depth, and explained within their wider social context.

Passage to Manhood is a groundbreaking and beautifully written ethnography that addresses the intersection of modernity, heroin use, and AIDS as they intersect in a new "rite-of-passage" among young ethnic-minority males in contemporary China.

A unique blend of scholarship and practice makes this book a compelling read detailing how rites of passage are used to link all education and youth development approaches. Eloquently crafted narratives integrating fifty years of practice provide readers with a new paradigm for youth and community development that will stimulate their imagination and impact their own practice.

Increasingly, young people live online, with the vast majority of their social and cultural interactions conducted through means other than face-to-face conversation. How does this transition impact the ways in which young migrants understand, negotiate, and perform identity? That's the question taken up by Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0, a ground-breaking analysis of the ways that youth culture online interacts with issues of diaspora, gender, and belonging. Drawing on surveys, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, Koen Leurs builds an interdisciplinary portrait of online youth culture and the spaces it opens up for migrant youth to negotiate power relations and to promote intercultural understanding.

A company of gifted historians and social scientists traces the changing character and status of young people from the gymnasia of ancient Greece to the lycees of modern France, from the sweatshops of the industrial revolution to the crucibles of Nazi youth. Monumental in its scope, minute in its attention to detail, this two-volume history is the first to present a comprehensive account of what youth has meant through the ages. 86 photos.