Drawing upon qualitative, longitudinal research with "socially excluded" young adults from some of England"s poorest neighbourhoods, the paper explores how locallyembedded, social networks become part of the process whereby poverty and class inequalities are reproduced. Networks of family and friends, rooted in severely deindustrialised locales, supported young people as they carved out transitions to adulthood in adverse circumstances. Examples are given in respect of informants" highly localised housing careers and their longer-term experience of "poor work".Paradoxically, though, whilst local networks helped in coping with the problems of growing up in poor neighbourhoods and generated a sense of inclusion, the sort of social capital embedded in them served simultaneously to close down opportunities and to limit the possibilities of escaping the conditions of social exclusion. Overall, and contrary to some recent youth sociology, the paper stresses the continuing importance of class and place in shaping youth transitions.

No abstract

Across the 'European learning space ' (Lawn, 2006) professionalisation of early years workforces has become a key priority and there has been a flow of this policy between borders (Oberhuemer, 2005). Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) is central to these developments in England. Within what is regarded as a traditionally 'split' early years workforce (Moss, 2008), EYPS felt to offer a route for those from a childcare background to improve their position relative to teaching professionals (HMT, 2004). Alongside these developments theoretical perspectives have emerged attempting to explain the professionalisation process in England. They include the following: 1) a post-structural theory suggesting the operation of an official discourse of professionalisation as a mode of control and regulation of EYPs' roles (Osgood, 2006); 2) an activist theory suggesting EYPs can take the lead in defining their own professionalisation and roles (Miller, 2008). Based on qualitative interview data, this article provides a typology which classifies EYPs as: role makers, role takers, role distancers or role avoiders. Then the potential of the post-structuralist and activist perspectives to explain how EYPs have come to play these roles is considered. It is claimed both these perspectives fall short in accounting for the complexity involved in the emergence of EYPs roles and a theory informed by critical realist insights is advocated as an alternative. The article concludes by casting doubt on the contributory potential of EYPS to facilitate change within the early years workforce.

The global rise of a neoliberal 'new politics of parenting' discursively constructs parents in poverty as the reason for, and remedy to, child poverty. This allows for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to become a key policy lever by using human technologies to intervene in and regulate the lives of parents and children in poverty. The article explores the uptake of this policy locally through interviews with 30 ECEC practitioners in three locations across England. The interviews suggested that the neoliberal discursive formation of child poverty as a problem of the poor themselves had symbolic power and was a view shared by most of the interviewees. This appeared to restrict their thinking and action, shaping a limited engagement with parents in poverty. Delivering curricular requirements was seen to further delimit practitioners' practices with children in poverty by reducing their poverty sensitivity. Although this is a small study, its findings may be of value in questioning neoliberal logics, and their implications are considered critically.

All items in TeesRep are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Skills for Life? Basic Skills and Marginal Transitions from School to Work Mark Cieslik & Donald SimpsonAbstract This paper reports on a qualitative research project that explored the influence of basic skills on the school-to-work transitions of young adults. Large numbers of young people have poor skills yet it is a neglected area of study. We document how skill competencies act as barriers to learning and labour market opportunities, illustrating that some individuals are 'reticent' about accessing opportunities and that individual decisionmaking and agency are important to transitions. The paper illustrates the relationships between decision-making and the structuring effects of prior learning experiences and indicates therefore how structural conditioning and agential processes are linked and together shape transition routes.