RESOURCES: Review - Can young people control their own lives?

Are futures determined by social, cultural, political or economic forces, or can young people manage their pathways?

Karen Evans et al have been at the forefront of this debate, working on comparative studies of England and Germany. This book, another from the Economic and Social Research Council youth research programme, is their latest. Based on empirical work in Derby, Hanover and Leipzig, it considers how young adults become independent and effective or marginalised and excluded.

The authors argue that young adults experience a clear sense of control and a capacity to exercise their personal "agency". Such agency is, nonetheless, restricted by social and institutional factors, leading to the development of the concept of "bounded agency". This is not dissimilar to earlier formulations of "constrained agency": hardly a surprise, as personal autonomy and self-direction is inevitably facilitated or obstructed by more extraneous factors.