The idea that Britain, the US and other western societies are witnessing the rise of an underclass of people at the bottom of the social heap, structurally and culturally distinct from traditional patterns of decent' working-class life, has become increasingly popular in the 1990s. Anti-work, anti-social, and welfare dependent cultures are said to typify this new dangerous class' and dangerous youth' are taken as the prime subjects of underclass theories. Debates about the family and single-parenthood, about crime and about unemployment and welfare reforms have all become embroiled in...

Under the weight of apparently growing consumer affluence, globalisation and post-modern social theory, many have proclaimed the declining significance of social class and place to young people's lives - and for social science. Drawing upon new, empirically grounded, theoretically innovative studies, this volume begs to differ.

It argues that the youth phase provides a privileged vantage point from which to interrogate and think about broader processes of social change and social continuity. These themes are addressed by all the diverse contributions gathered here. The chapters...

How do young people get by in hard times and hard places? Have they become a 'lost generation' disconnected from society's mainstream? Do popular ideas about social exclusion or a welfare dependent underclass really connect with the lived experiences of the so-called 'disaffected', 'disengaged' and 'difficult-to-reach'? Based on close-up research with young men and women from localities suffering social exclusion in extreme form, Disconnected Youth? will appeal to all those who are interested in understanding and tackling the problems of growing up in Britain's poor neighbourhoods.