Young People and Long-Term Unemployment

Young People and Long-Term Unemployment 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). 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.

Marco Giugni is Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of the Institute of Citizenship Studies (InCite) at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on social movements and political participation. He is European Editor of Mobilization: An International Quarterly. Jasmine Lorenzini is research fellow at the Institute of Citizenship Studies (InCite) at the University of Geneva. She works on political sociology focusing on youth political participation, food democracy, and social movements. Manlio Cinalli holds a chair of Sociology at the University of Milan and is Associate Research Director at Sciences Po Paris. He has delivered teaching and research in leading universities across Europe and the US. His research combines contentious politics, political behaviour, and policy studies. Christian Lahusen holds a chair of Sociology at the Faculty of Arts at Siegen University. His research is devoted to the sociology of European societies and European integration, social movements and political participation, social problems, and social exclusion. Simone Baglioni holds a chair in Sociology in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Parma, Italy. His research focuses on civic engagement and civil society issues as well as on unemployment and migration.

1. A multidimensional, multi-level, comparative perspective on youth unemployment 2. Setting out the context 3. The multi-organizational field of unemployment politics 4. Subjective well-being 5. Social inclusion 6. Political inclusion 7. Experiencing long-term unemployment 8. Being young and without a job