Description

This work examines the changing nature of young people's lives at the start of a new century. Arguing that the sociology of youth has struggled to bridge the gap between structural and cultural conceptions of youth, this book emphasizes the notion of lifestyle as an enlightening means of addressing young people's relationship with social change. Against a social and cultural backdrop characterized by postmodern fragmentation, risk and globalization, young people are apparently finding individualized transitions into adulthood increasingly difficult, and this book shows how lifestyles play an important role. It considers key aspects of young people's lifestyles such as their relationship to rave, the media, and consumption in general, as a means of constructing identities. In this introduction to a complex filed, the author outlines the dilemmas faced by sociology, and examines the role played by consumer lifestyles in constructing who and what young people are in a rapidly changing world.