ABSTRACT
Youth research in Australia and New Zealand is influenced by the distinctive environment in which it is undertaken. Australia is a large, sparsely populated continent and a population of approximately 19 million people, who live in cities and regional towns, largely concentrated on the coastal fringe. New Zealand consists of two main islands, and has a relatively small population of approximately 4 million people. While they are both migrant societies that have Indigenous populations, the different historical origins and subsequent social and economic development between the two countries means that today there are both historic and contemporary differences that impact on young people’s lives. Yet young people in Australia and New Zealand do share some common circumstances. They have grown up in Englishspeaking countries in the Pacific that were colonized during the 1800s. Young people born in the early 1970s in Australia and New Zealand are shaping their lives in the context of significant changes to many aspects of life that the preceding generation took for granted. In Australia,
Hence, one of the dominant themes of youth research in this region is the goal of understanding the effects of social change on young people’s lives. This involves examining shifts in the way that individuals relate to social institutions, especially family, labour markets, and education. Understanding social change has also resulted in a rethinking of the way in which traditional social divisions of class, gender, race, ethnicity and location are conceptualised. In this respect, the issues and trends that
youth researchers in this part of the world focus on are similar to those in other developed countries. For example, over the last quarter of a century there has been a focus on the effects of the loss of a full-time labour market for young people and the striking increase in part-time jobs for young people. The shift towards a human capital approach to education and the production of educationally credentialled, ‘high skill’ workers has also been a strong theme. Hence, youth research has focused on the processes of transition, from school to work and into adulthood, as they are experienced by young people from rural and urban locations, by young women and young men and by young Indigenous people.
