RESOURCES: Review - Postmodern youth are victims of new society

It reiterates arguments prevalent for some time in western Europe about the changing condition of young people's lives and the changing nature of youth transitions. What is significant about this publication is that it suggests these arguments now have a more global reach and relevance - at least as far as eastern Europe and some parts of the Far East.

The essential argument is that four factors have altered the context in which young people are growing up.

First, economic globalisation has had powerful consequences for the structures of youth and adult labour markets. Second, the emergence of the knowledge and information society has produced significant change at economic, political and cultural levels. Third, the major regulatory and socialisation institutions, such as family, school and church, have been transformed, with implications for civil society. And fourth, the impact of such socialising institutions and frameworks has been weakened, as individuals have been released "from the shackles inherited from often centuries-old traditions".