How to avoid cooling out? Experiences of young people in their transitions to work across Europe

In this working paper the authors investigate the active engagement of young women and men in shaping their transitions from school to work. How do they navigate through increasingly flexible and risk-laden transition systems? What strategies do they apply to develop and maintain learning motivation or to cope with de-motivation? The research was conducted with funding from the EUs Fifth Framework Programme and involves research teams from Denmark, East and West Germany, Great Britain (Northern Ireland), Ireland (Republic), Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Under the title "Youth Policy and Participation. Potentials of Participation and Informal Learning for Young People\u27s Transitions to the Labour Market" it investigates how young people use programmes and training measures which define active participation and the involvement of participants as essential for their approach towards young people. (Author)In diesem Arbeitspapier untersuchen die AutorInnen das aktive Engagement junger Frauen und Männer in der Gestaltung ihrer Übergänge von der Schule in den Beruf. Wie navigieren sie durch zunehmen flexibilisierte und risikobehaftete Übergangssysteme? Welche Strategien wenden sie an, um Lernmotivation zu entwickeln und aufrechtzuerhalten? Und wie gehen sie mit demotivierenden Erfahrungen um? Das zugrundeliegende Forschungsprojekt wurde finanziert mit Mitteln aus dem 5. Rahmenforschungsprogramm der EU. Beteiligt waren Forschungsteams aus Dänemark, Deutschland (Ost und West), Großbritannien (Nordirland), Irland, Italien, den Niederlanden, Portugal, Rumänien und Spanien. Unter dem Titel "Jugendpolitik und Partizipation. Potenziale von Partizipation und informellem Lernen für die Übergänge junger Menschen in den Arbeitsmarkt" untersucht das Projekt, wie Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene Unterstützungs- und Trainingsmaßnahmen nutzen, die aktive Beteiligung und Mitbestimmung der TeilnehmerInnen zum zentralen Bestandteil ihres Arbeitskonzeptes machen. (Autor

Reconstructing Asian faunal introductions to eastern Africa from multi-proxy biomolecular and archaeological datasets

Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In subS-aharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these introductions remain contentious. One model supports introduction to the eastern African coast after the mid-first millennium CE, while another posits introduction dating back to 3000 BCE. These distinct scenarios have implications for understanding the emergence of long-distance maritime connectivity, and the ecological and economic impacts of introduced species. Resolution of this longstanding debate requires new efforts, given the lack of well-dated fauna from high-precision excavations, and ambiguous osteomorphological identifications. We analysed faunal remains from 22 eastern African sites spanning a wide geographic and chronological range, and applied biomolecular techniques to confirm identifications of two Asian taxa: domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) and black rat (Rattus rattus). Our approach included ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis aided by BLAST-based bioinformatics, Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) collagen fingerprinting, and direct AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating. Our results support a late, mid-first millennium CE introduction of these species. We discuss the implications of our findings for models of biological exchange, and emphasize the applicability of our approach to tropical areas with poor bone preservation

Schooling, Family Background, and Adoption: Is It Nature or Is It Nurture?

When parents are more educated, their children tend to receive more schooling as well. Does this occur because parental ability is passed on genetically or because more educated parents provide a better environment for children to flourish? Using an intergenerational sample of families, we estimate on the basis of a comparison of biological and adopted children that about 5560 percent of the parental ability is genetically transmitted.

Perceptions of young people on being young and becoming adult

In einer Längsschnittstudie zur Übergangsproblematik wurden Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene (16-27 Jahre) u.a. über ihre Vorstellungen zu erwachsen werden und damit verbundenen Lebenszielen in offenen biographischen Interviews befragt. Es zeigt sich, dass der Status des Erwachsenen und die traditionellen Lebensziele \u27Arbeit\u27 und \u27Familie\u27 einer geschlechtsspezifischen Normalbiographie stark relativiert werden zugunsten von individueller Entwicklung und Selbstverwirklichung. Diese Tendenz ist aber nicht durchgängig, wenn der Einfluss von sozialem Herkunftmilieu und Geschlecht mit berücksichtigt werden. Wir fassen unsere Ergebnisse in einer aufeiner HOMALS Analyse beruhenden Typologie von vier verschiedenen Übergangstrajekten zusammen. (DIPF/Orig.)In a longitudinal study into transitional processes, biographical interviews have been conducted with youth and young adults between 16 and 27 years of age, which focused on, amongst other things, their perceptions of adulthood and the social roles that have historically been connected with adulthood, these being work and family. The results show that contemporary young adults define adulthood mainly in terms of individual development and self-realization and less so in terms ofthe social roles of work andfamily. However, this prevailing conception is not supported by everyone. This becomes apparent when the influences of social background and gender are taken into account. We summarize our findings by way of a typology, acquired by HOMALS analysis. (DIPF/Orig.