Youths as Transition: Theoretical and methodological contributions to the youth study field in Latin America and Spain

Abstract

This article presents a contribution to youth as a transition(s) to adulthood, valuing its inputs on the design of youth programs and policies in Latin America and Spain. First of all, it presents a conceptual review focused on tensions between social changes and reproduction, reflecting on their scope and limitations in dissimilar social contexts. Secondly, it analyzes the situation of the Spanish youth and its particular conditions supported by generational facts. Then, it presents a discussion of the emerging factors in Latin America according to the expansion of social vulnerability and exclusion processes. Finally, and based on work done by the teams of GRET from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Youth Research Program of FLACSO Argentina, it talks about the paradoxes between nuclear and peripheral policies, revaluing the youth as transition perspective as an incomplete approach for designing youth policies.