Disconnected Youth?

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Abstract
Drawing on qualitative research on youth transitions in a locale that faces all the objective problems of 'social exclusion' in extreme form, this article explores the ways in which young people are connected to, or disconnected from, mainstream opportunities, lifestyles and outlooks. Case studies are used to uncover the lived experience of single motherhood, drug-related crime and persistent unemployment. These are examined to reveal how they connect, or do not connect, with prevailing academic and policy discourses about 'excluded', 'underclass' youth. We argue that the policy-driven social exclusion paradigm does have analytical advantages over underclass theory. They both fail, however, to capture the diversity of transitions that evolve in areas like this and the way that local networks and cultures can serve to include economically marginal youth. We conclude by questioning some of the basic assumptions of government social inclusion policies.

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