Young People and Long-Term Unemployment

<p><em>Young People and Long-Term Unemployment</em> examines the consequences of long-term unemployment for the personal social and political lives of young adults aged 18–34 across four European cities: Cologne (Germany) Geneva (Switzerland) Lyon (France) and Turin (Italy). </p><p>Adopting a multidimensional theoretical framework aiming to bring together insights based on the contextual (macro) organizational (meso) and individual (micro) levels and combining quantitative and qualitative data and analyses it reaches a number of important conclusions. First our study shows that the experience of long-term unemployment has a negative impact on different dimensions of young people’s lives. When compared to employed youth unemployed youth are less satisfied with their lives more isolated and less independent financially. Second however there are important variations across the four cities. This means that in spite of widespread retrenchments in some places the welfare state still acts as a buffer against unemployment. Third although young unemployed people participate in politics equally if not slightly more than employed youth the young unemployed are often disconnected from politics. This is so even when they have important grievances to express in the face of high youth unemployment precarious working conditions and grim future perspectives on the labor market. This book will be useful for scholars interested in unemployment politics and youth politics researchers and teachers in political science sociology and social psychology.</p>