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Young People's Time Perspectives: From Youth to Adulthood.

The article examines three bodies of theory: individualization, the lifecourse, and concepts of time. It interrogates these theories with respect to the following questions: how young people speak about the future; and the bearing of young people's situations and time perspectives upon the way they envisage the transition to adulthood. It draws upon empirical research from a five-country European study, in particular material from focus group discussions conducted with young people in two west-European countries, Britain and Norway. It analyses variations in young peoples' ways of thinking about their future lives, and proposes, as a basis for further research, three ideal typical models.

Individualization has become a key concept in theories of social change inWestern societies. Closely associated with this is the idea that the lifecourseis undergoing fundamental changes, involving destandardization and de-sequencing; the standard biography is thought to be replaced by ‘choice bio-graphy’. These theorizations invite debate about the concept of time since theyoccur over time and within time. They also require an orientation to time. Inthis article we examine theories of lifecourse process and change and conceptsof time with reference to the research questions: how do young people thinkand speak about the future; and what bearing do young people’s situations andtime perspectives have upon the way they envisage the future and the transitionto adulthood? We draw upon empirical material from focus groups conductedwith young people in two West European countries, Britain and Norway.1 Our main purpose in this article is to develop a theoretical discussion aboutyoung people’s time orientations as they emerge in group discussions, and topresent our tentative attempts to apply theory to empirical data. We explorevariations in young people’s ways of thinking about their future lives, on thebasis of which we propose three ideal typical models. The models suggest agreater variety in ways of thinking and planning for the future than the individualization thesis and its emphasis on ‘choice biography’ imply.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249825684_Young_People's_Time_Perspectives_From_Youth_to_Adulthood