'Adults don't realize how sheltered they are': a contribution to the debate on youth transitions from some voices on the margins

Abstract

Taking vehicles without the owner's consent has recently been explored in the context of 'risk'. In this paper we wish to add to this invaluable insight and, especially, to the current debate, not least in this journal, on the conceptual value of youth transitions in general, and the school to work transition in particular. Through the accounts of a sample of young men involved in vehicle offending we demonstrate that, from their worldview, the school to work transition, albeit in an 'alternative' form, remains a prime heuristic device for understanding their 'self-culture', identity and status creation, and their chosen leisure activities as they confront all too prematurely the insecurities produced by late modernity. This one transitional element, however, must be appreciated as one aspect of a much broader conceptualization of 'transition' that serves to afford insight into the lived experiences of those young people.