Collaborative Individualization? Peer-to-peer Action in Youth Transitions

Abstract

In this article we propose the notion of collaborative individualization (henceforth, C.I.) as a means of characterizing young people’s attempts to define their identities as simultaneously self-reliant and in need of support and collaboration. Our arguments are based on the findings of a transnational case study: a recent Council of Europe policy project called Edgeryders, an online platform whose participants were invited to discuss their experience of attempting to achieve ‘fully independent adulthood’. In light of findings which suggest that individualization amongst the young might take forms which are more collaborative than self-focused, we argue that youth scholars ought to rethink the assumptions made about the nature of individualization in youth transitions. We propose that such theorizations should embrace the potential described by C.I. in order to provide constructive responses to young people’s changing socio-economic needs, and refocus attention on young people’s situatedness within the communities many are demonstrably committed to working with and for.

Youth transitions as ‘wiki-transitions’ in youth policies platforms

“…Second, they saw the value of peer-learning as a means of accessingand offeringsupport in relation to navigating these transitional pathways. We have discussed elsewhere how this suggests the importance of forms of peer to peer collaboration which are understudied (Cuzzocrea and Collins 2015). The discussion below critically discusses how participants constructed their transitions to independent adulthood as 'wiki-transitions', in turn shaping the online space of the Edgeryders platform in the mould of their everyday embodied space.…”

“…The Social Enterprise' and the notion of wiki-style collaborative information-sharing (Cottica 2010;Cottica 2013;Cuzzocrea and Collins 2015) as a means of directly tackling the absence of targeted policy and/or action at a range of scales. The dispersed, collaborative nature of information-sharing characterised not just by Edgeryders but by young people's use of social networks and online space to reach out to each other, somewhat undermineseven shattersthe idea of the 'magic triangle' as a means of understanding young people's lives.…”

Theorizing Belonging of Migrant Children and Youth at a Meso-Level

“…Drawing on that, child-centric and youth studies paradigms also look at how own outlook is developed through peer socialization (e.g. Cuzzocrea, Collins 2015, horvath 2008, grabowska et al 2017, which goes beyond the primary and secondary socialization agents of institutions (schools) and family (parents).…”

Youth transitions: mobility and the travel intentions of 12–20 year olds, Reading, UK

“…There's plenty of young people who may not be able to find employment. Some of them do work, so I think it would be fair for every young person,really' (David,17) These quotes highlight that young people's understandings go beyond neo-liberal choice biographies, and include what Cuzzocrea and Collins (2015)…”