The youth : a troublesome sociological category

Abstract

The youth is a sociological category which usually causes trouble for the adults due to young people’s contestation of the social order and value systems. Young people have always been among potential and actual revolutionaries. It can be concluded that the youth constitute some kind of threat to the existing state of society. Young people compete with adults, not only in the sphere of values, but also on the job market for the best posts and, as a consequence, for positions in the social structure. Since this is a kind of an emerging category, just entering an adult life, its position has been usually worse. Th us the youth additionally has to experience (oft en negative) consequences of social change and its impact for individual biographies of youngsters. The youth also causes trouble as an object of sociological study. Firstly, there are problems how to determine precisely the scope and content (meaning) of this concept. Secondly, youth research led usually to the conclusions that were quickly challenged by the social practice. Thirdly, there are various ideas how to determine its role in society. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these issues in the context of the social changes taking place in the modern globalized society