The Construction and Deconstruction of Youth in East and West Europe Wallace, Claire; Kovatcheva, Sijka

www.ssoar.info Changing times, changing lives: the construction and deconstruction of youth in East and West Europe Wallace, Claire; Kovatcheva, Sijka Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Arbeitspapier / working paper Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Wallace, C., & Kovatcheva, S. (1998). Changing times, changing lives: the construction and deconstruction of youth in East and West Europe. (Reihe Soziologie / Institut für Höhere Studien, Abt. Soziologie, 22). Wien: Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS), Wien. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-222010 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Weiterverbreitung - keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Redistribution - no modifications). 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Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS), Wien Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna Reihe Soziologie / Sociological Series No. 22 Changing Times, Changing Lives The Construction and Deconstruction of Youth in East and West Europe Claire Wallace, Sijka Kovatcheva Changing Times, Changing Lives The Construction and Deconstruction of Youth in East and West Europe Claire Wallace, Sijka Kovatcheva Reihe Soziologie / Sociological Series No. 22 January 1998 Claire Wallace Institut für Höhere Studien Stumpergasse 56, A-1060 Wien Phone: +43/1/599 91-213 Fax: +43/1/599 91-191 e-mail: [email protected] Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS), Wien Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna Die Reihe Soziologiewird von der Abteilung Soziologie des Instituts für Höhere Studien (IHS) in Wien herausgegeben. Ziel dieser Publikationsreihe ist, abteilungsinterne Arbeitspapiere einer breiteren fachinternen Öffentlichkeit und Diskussion zugänglich zu machen. Die inhaltliche Verantwortung für die veröffentlichten Beiträge liegt bei den Autorinnen. Gastbeiträge werden als solche gekenn zeichnet. Alle RechteVorbehalten Abstract This report considers the situation of young people in Eastern and Western Europe. It draws upon theories of youth and data about them from both halves of Europe in order to draw comparisons. The report begins by considering the main theories of youth in each context. The report argues that youth as an age category is a product of processes of European modernization which have served to construct youth. However, recent trends such as flexibilisation in the labour market, the expansion of education and rising youth unemployment have helped to extend the period of youth and could be described as post- modernising tendencies: they deconstruct youth as an age category. However, the authors are able to point examples of both tendencies in contemporary European societies. The report covers the field of the historical youth movements, education and work, family life- course, youth cultures and young people in politics. Zusammenfassung Diese Studie analysiert die Lage der Jugend in Osteuropa einerseits und in Westeuropa andererseits. Sie stützt sich auf Jugend-Theorien und empirische Daten von beiden Hälften Europas mit der Hauptperspektive, daraus internationale Vergleiche abzuleiten. Die Studie beginnt mit der Darstellung der zentralen Theorien Ober “Jugend" in unterschiedlichen systemischen und historischen Kontexten. Die Untersuchung stellt die These auf, daß Jugend als Alterskategorie ein Ergebnis des Prozesses der europäischen Modernisierung darstellt, welcher die Konstruktion des Konzeptes "Jugend" bewirkte. Dessen ungeachtet haben aktuelle Trends wie die Flexibilisierung des Arbeitsmarktes, die Ausweitung des Bildungssektors und der Anstieg von Jugendarbeitslosigkeit dazu beigetragen, die Periode der “Jugend” zu verlängern. Wir sprechen von den “postmodernen Tendenzen” der Dekonstruktion von Jugend als einer Alterskategorie. Dennoch konnten wir Beispiele sowohl für Prozesse der Modernisierung als auch der Postmodernisierung im Bereich der Jugendforschung aufzeigen. Die Studie befaßt sich mit den Themenbereichen der historischen Jugendbewegungen, mit Bildung, Beschäftigung und Arbeitsmarkt, mit dem Zusammenhang von Jugend, von Familien, mit Lebenszyklen, mit Fragen der Jugendkultur und mit dem Wechselspiel von Jugend und Politik. Contents Chapter 1 1 Introduction: towards an understanding of age relations in Europe Modernity and Postmodernity 3 Youth and Modernity 8 Diversity and Difference in Europe 15 Models of Youth 20 Perspectives on Youth in Eastern Europe 30 Conclusions 34 Chapter 2 36 Modernization and the Construction of Youth 36 Conclusion 63 Chapter 3 65 Transitions in Education, Training and Work 65 Secondary education: the continued expansion 68 The increasing demand for Higher Education 75 Rising unemployment and the expansion of training 79 New trends in the Labour Market 84 Stratification 86 Conclusions 94 Chapter 4 96 Family Transitions 96 Conclusions 116 Chapter 5 us Youth culture, sub-cultures and consumerism 118 Conclusion: the End of Youth Sub-cultures? 140 Chapter 6 u z Young people’s political values and participation 143 Patterns in youth politics 144 Youth politics in Eastern Europe under socialism 148 Young people and the political transformations at the end of the 1980s 149 Young people in Post-Communist Politics 152 Young people’s political values 157 Young people and populist political movements 158 Conclusions 160 Chapter7 162 Conclusions: Postmodernization and the deconstruction of youth 162 References?170 I H S — Wallace and Kovatcheva / Changing Times, Changing — 1Lives Chapter 1 introduction: towards an understanding of age relations in Europe Europe is a very large and diverse region. There are about 350 million people in Westernern (European Union) Europe, of whom 14 per cent are aged 15-24 and a further 200 million people in East (former communist) Europe (Eurostat 1993b). The collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the expanding role of the European Union in both western and eastern Europe has prompted some to ask: what is Europe? (Rose 1996). Although Europe is divided by politics, religion, culture, climate and a host of other factors, it is possible to identify some common trends in the construction of youth. Eastern and western European countries are characterised by highly developed industrial societies, with a generally high standard of living and and extensively elaborated welfare states and this gives them common features in comparison with other parts of the world. The identification of youth as a social category and as a target for various kinds of interventions is also a product of the European experience, to the extent that ‘youth’ is not only a product of advanced industrial societies, but particular kinds of advanced societies. The project of writing a book about youth in Europe therefore makes some sense, especially when the Cold War division of Europe has gone and deepening of ties within the European Union, the harmonization of policies and common social trends make comparisons important. However, such a book cannot hope to do justice to the diversity of regional developments and state systems within Europe. Therefore, we have concentrated particularly upon certain countries where we have personal and research experience: Britain, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine(1). We have referred to broad regions of Europe which these countries could be used to represent - whilst eastern Europe usually refers to the former communist countries, it now represents the former Soviet Union, central Europe spans the former Cold War divide in the middle and south eastern Europe covers both former communist and non-communist Balkan countries. Where possible we have drawn upon other studies and European-level data to show the more general trends and the contrasting experiences of other European regions. The general argument which we develop in the book is about the way in which age relations in general and youth in particular are socially constructed as a phenomenon of modern European societies and this thesis could also be applied to other European societies which we have not covered to any extent here. The general tendency to construct youth as a social category can be found with modernization and is accompanied by a tendency to deconstruct youth in the process of postmodernization. However, these phases do not follow one another - rather, they

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