Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
Young people in Australia, as elsewhere, face more complex and uncertain pathways to adulthood than ever before. Education and training have been extended, identity is increasingly shaped through leisure and consumerism, and youth are expected to navigate their life trajectories in highly individualized ways. Employment is a central feature of this fundamentally altered social, political and economic environment, yet there is little empirical evidence of how young people are socialised through early employment.
This project explores how youth seek to ‘be and become’ (Woodman 2004) participants in the formal labour market and how employment intersects with other life domains such as leisure and family. Data collection could involve targeted groups of young people in different social locations (rural Australia, disadvantaged or marginalised groups, girls in non-traditional areas) and/or involve multiple case studies as part of a PhD.
The research could also be conducted in countries that are culturally distinct from Australia. The project will generate rich experiential data that addresses early employment choices and how these intersect with opportunities and challenges in other life domains.
- Study level
- PhD, Masters
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
QUT Business School
- Research area
- Keywords
- youth employment, young people, pathways to work, employment relations, precarious employment, work and family, leisure, pathways
- Contact
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For more information please contact Professor Paula McDonald.
Professor Paula McDonald
