Mainstream British sociology has curiously neglected happiness studies despite growing interest in wellbeing in recent years. Sociologists often view happiness as a problematic, subjective phenomenon, linked to problems of modernity such as consumerism, alienation and anomie. This construction of 'happiness as a problem' has a long history from Marx and Durkheim to contemporary writers such as Ahmed and Furedi. Using qualitative interview data I illustrate how lay accounts of happiness suggest it is experienced in far more 'social' ways than these traditional subjective constructions. We should therefore be wary of using crude representations of happiness as vehicles for our traditional depictions of modernity. Such 'thin' accounts of happiness have inhibited a serious sociological engagement with the things that really matter to ordinary people such as our efforts to balance suffering and flourishing in our daily lives.

This paper reports on the findings of a small qualitative research project that examined the experiences of a group of adult learners attending a basic skills programme in the English Midlands during the late 1990s. It explores patterns of participation on such programmes and illustrates that early life course experiences can shape changing dispositions towards learning and forms of (dis)engagement from formal provision. The concept of reflexivity is used to help describe the differing contributions that structural and agential processes make to this patterning of engagement with learning. Such an approach is posited as a development of the concepts of learning identity and learning career that have recently been used to understand participation in education.

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.

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