Special Edition of the Journal of Youth Studies (2010)
Youth and social change in post-socialist Eastern Europe
Guest Editors: Charlie Walker (University of Oxford) and Svetlana Stephenson
(London Metropolitan University)
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The guest editors are inviting the submission of abstracts for possible inclusion
in a special edition of the Journal of Youth Studies to be published in 2010.
• If interested, in the first instance, please submit an abstract of no
more than 250 words to [log in to unmask] by 5th June 2009.
Youth studies has traditionally provided a rich, interdisciplinary forum for the
exploration both of processes of social change and of a range of social
identities and divisions. In recent years, such explorations have centred on
theories of reflexive modernity, pointing variously to processes of
individualisation and risk, the erosion of social identities, and the
destandardisation of biographies and the life course. While the structural and
cultural shifts which have purportedly given rise to these developments – in
particular towards the dominance of neo-liberalism, less secure employment
relations and changing formations of gender and family – have taken place in
Western European societies over a protracted period, in post-socialist Eastern
Europe they have taken more extreme forms, and have produced profound
dislocations in all aspects of social and economic life.
In this Special Issue of the Journal of Youth Studies, we wish to explore the
emerging contours of social change and social divisions in Eastern Europe by
focusing on the ways in which young people negotiate a range of identities
and transitions through a period of social transformation. Existing studies
indicate that, as in Western Europe, while the dislocating experience of post-
socialism may have led to processes of disembedding in young people’s lives
and identities, it may also have engendered a re-embedding of old divisions,
dependencies and ways of doing things. As such, explorations of young
people’s lives in post-socialism provide an opportunity to examine not only the
emerging shape of social inequalities and social change in the region, but also,
to interrogate and reflect back upon some of the central claims of
contemporary Western social theory. In particular, the study of young people
in Eastern Europe provides rich ground for engagement with current debates
about the continuing significance of divisions and identities rooted in class,
gender, ethnicity and place, as well as of social formations such as kinship,
the family and community. Thus, we invite papers which critically engage with
Western theories of social change through empirical investigations of young
people’s lives in post-socialist Eastern Europe.
Submissions to the Special Issue might explore, but should not be limited to,
the following themes:
• Class, gender, ethnicity, and place in youth transitions to adulthood
• Rural-urban and centre-periphery divisions amongst young people
• Young people and work: informal earning and new forms of
employment
• Young people’s sexualities
• Household and family formation
• (Sub)cultural formations, consumption, and leisure
Dr Charlie Walker and Dr Svetlana Stephenson, 11th May 2009
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