The Territorial Dimension of School-to-Work Transitions: Youth Opportunities across Space, Contexts and Multilevel Governance

Dear Colleagues,

The transition from school to work is a crucial moment in the lives of young people that shapes their future careers. Integrating young labour markets with society therefore represents a key challenge; many young people are disillusioned with the working landscape, which has changed quickly due to macroeconomic shocks, as well as the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences.

The territorial element of youth integration has often been underestimated in comparative analysis, but recent evidence suggests the existence of significant variation in youth integration at The territorial dimension of youth labour market integration is affected by multilevel governance structures, youth agency, and other contextual factors that produce differentiated outcomes, or contextual structures of opportunities.

This is a complex picture, and thus there is a need to include this aspect and its multiple scales within the analytical frame of school-to-work transition. This Special Issue will feature articles that discuss the opportunities and constraints that young people face in the transition from school to work in sub-national territories.

We encourage a range of contributions that adopt a variety of research designs, such as:

• Robust empirical (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method) studies exploring variation and determinants of youth labour market integration and school-to-work transitions in EU and non-EU territories;
• Comparative studies analysing differences across multilevel governance systems in EU and non-EU countries and regions, as well as differences in youth perceptions;
• Case studies on the territorial articulation of education, training, employment and labour market policies;
• Papers exploring the territorial impacts of COVID-19 and the 2008 recession on youth labour market integration;
• Other related topics that affect youth opportunities and their lifecourse.

References

Benasso, S., Bouillet, D., Neves, T., Parreira do Amaral, M. (eds.) (2022). Landscapes of Lifelong Learning Policies across Europe. Comparative Case Studies, Policy Press, Bristol.

Capsada-Munsech, Q., & Valiente, O. (2020). Sub-National Variation of Skill Formation Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Skill Mismatch Across 18 European Regions. European Education, 52(2), 166-179.

Cefalo, R., Scandurra, R. (2021). Territorial disparities in youth labour market chances in Europe, Regional Studies, Regional Science, 8(1), 228-238. DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2021.1925580.

Cefalo R., Scandurra, R. and Kazepov, Y. (2020). Youth Labour Market Integration in European Regions, Sustainability, 12 (9), 3813. DOI: 10.3390/su12093813.

Dalziel, P. (2015). Regional skill ecosystems to assist young people making education employment linkages in transition from school to work. Local Economy, 30(1), 53-66.

De Lange, M., Gesthuizen, M., & Wolbers, M. H. (2014). Youth labour market integration across Europe: The impact of cyclical, structural, and institutional characteristics. European Societies, 16(2), 194-212.

Kazepov, Y., Cefalo, R. (2022). The territorial dimension of Social Investment, Y. Kazepov, R. Cucca, E. Barberis, E. Mocca (eds), Handbook of Urban Social Policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

O'Reilly, J., Leschke, J., Ortlieb, R., Seeleib-Kaiser, M., & Villa, P. (Eds.). (2018). Youth labor in transition: Inequalities, mobility, and policies in Europe, Oxford University Press.

Pastore, F. (2015). The youth experience gap: Explaining national differences in the school-to-work transition. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015574962

Raffe, D. (2014). Explaining national differences in education–work transitions: Twenty years of research on transition systems. European Societies, 16(2), 175–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2013.821619

Roberts, K. (2009). Opportunity structures then and now. Journal of education and work, 22(5), 355-368.

Scandurra, R. Cefalo, R. and Kazepov, Y. (2020). School to work outcomes during the Great Recession, is the regional scale relevant for young people’s life chances?, Journal of Youth Studies. 24(4), 441-465, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1742299.

Scandurra, R., Cefalo, R. & Kazepov, Y. (2021). Drivers of Youth Labour Market Integration Across European Regions. Social Indicators Research. DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02549-8.

Dr. Rosario Scandurra
Dr. Ruggero Cefalo
Guest Editors

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