Beyond 'Y' and Other Stereotypes: Exploring the Experience of Youth in the 21st Century

The popular tendency to label whole generations and define subgroups within them became current in the latter half of the twentieth century. As young people attained a growing importance as consumers of goods and educational services, the attentions of sociologists and psychologists, educators and advertisers intensified. For many people, Bodgies and Widgies, Mods and Rockers, Hippies and Punks of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s respectively, often symbolised troublesome/delinquent youth. Group identification enshrined in dress, music and interests was also commonly interpreted as signifying a shared ethos. Depending on when they were born, young people were broadly categorised as 'baby boomers' (1946-64) or 'Generation Xs' (1965-79), although there is no official time span for these loosely constructed 'generations'. Currently, the so-called Generation Y (1980-2000) is stereotyped as being overly pampered, 'tech-savvy', narcissistic, and ambitious but lacking commitment. Young people born since 2000 have been further stereotyped as 'Gen Z', the first generation to be born into a world of unprecedented communicative technology.This issue of Social Alternatives draws upon the academic expertise of a number of researchers in the field of youth studies in order to critique such generational stereotypes and bring to light some of the real-life experiences of young people today. The articles that follow demonstrate clearly that while young people may be connected by the commonality of the decades in which they were born, they are differentiated by the same factors that shape the lives of their elders, for example: race, socio-economic status, geo-location and gender. Young people often have to face exactly the same problems as adults, but because of their age they are routinely castigated as irresponsible and deemed to be less able to respond to life's challenges.Kerry Vincent and Pat Thomson describe these processes of age discrimination in their article that explores the ways in which teenage mothers are marginalised and stigmatised via discourses of deviance and incompetence. Their research with a small group of young mothers in the UK exposes the pressure these girls feel to 'atone' for their perceived 'failings' as they strive to cope with motherhood, work and study. The unforgiving communities in which these teenage mothers live might well construct the girls' lives as just as 'wasted' as in the potential of the students attending Grant's Farm in the contribution by Martin Mills, Peter Renshaw and Lew Zipin.Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman's book Wasted Lives, these authors explore the ways in which many disadvantaged young people are not only failed by mainstream schools, but are also constructed in ways that suggest they are the expendable 'rubbish' of society. Their research is situated in an economically depressed rural region of Queensland, Australia. The authors note that attending school at Grant's Farm does not require the wearing of a uniform and subordination to the adults who teach the young people. It is a curious thing that in the twenty-first century young people in most high schools in Australia (with some notable exceptions) are still regimented, voiceless and subject to the random application of adult power. The article calls for holistic support structures that start with education authorities and government departments but also extend to regional communities and their local 'funds of knowledge' and resources that are vital to assisting marginalised young people in these areas.The issue of race and its intersection with youth is taken up by Greg Vass as he critiques the homogenising effects of generational theory, with a particular focus on young Indigenous people. Drawing upon 'positioning theory', he explores the complex discursive interplay among Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and their teachers during classes at his research school. In his article, Vass describes the tensions that ensue as Indigenous students, who by virtue of their minority status and race may feel positionally powerless, struggle to assert personal power via the performance of identity work. …