2025/06/03 by Anna Barford · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Youth Education and Societal Dynamics #Employment and Welfare Studies #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/20438206251345547
openalex publication_date 2025/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
This response to Santiago del Río et al.’s ( 2026 ) exploration of youth precarity in Europe contextualises their findings within broader international dynamics. I highlight how youth precarity is showing signs of convergence acorss low- to high-income countries, despite diverse historical, cultural, and economic contexts. Internationally, austerity can be understood as a ‘shared process’ which is undermining state capacity and intensifying the barriers to stable adulthood, thus reshaping young people's life courses,. Research from Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia demonstrates how austerity and other disruptive processes have recalibrated young people's expectations of the state and their aspirations for themselves. Young people's aspirations for stability face the structural constraints of limited formal employment and fraying social protection. In this context, volunteering, savings, and informal strategies often become coping mechanisms. Given the weakened state functions in many contexts, I warn of a generational normalisation of inadequate public provision. In response, greater investment in state-led support systems is urgently needed to reverse generational scarring and establish decent opportunities for young people as a new norm. Further, a new agenda of international comparative research into youth precarity could identify commonalities and divergences in the challenges faced by young people around the world to provide a holistic overview.