Structure and Agency in Young People¿s Lives

Structure and Agency in Young People¿s Lives brings together different takes on the possible combinations of agency and structure in the life course, thus rejecting the notion that young individuals are the single masters of their lives, but also the view that their social destinies are completely out of their hands.

¿How did I get here?¿ This is a question young people have always asked themselves and is often asked by youth researchers. There is no easy and single answer. The lives that are told, on one hand, and their interpretation, on the other, may have the underlying idea of ''own doing'' or the idea of ''social determinism'' or, more accurately and frequently, a combination of the two.

This collection constitutes a comprehensive map on how to make sense of youth¿s biographies and trajectories, it questions and reshapes the discussion on the role and responsibility of youth studies in the understanding of how people juggle opportunities and constraints,