ABSTRACT

The study of youth is central to efforts to understanding continuity and change and the reproduction of inequality. There are longstanding debates about how to account for class in shaping young people’s lives in the context of social change, including recent calls for a greater focus on political economy in the sociological study of youth. This article considers these debates in the context of the rise of the asset economy, developing a generational framework for conceptualizing young adulthood and shifting intergenerational relations in the context of the growing importance of assets to economic stratification. I propose that the shifting interaction of income, assets and family transfers reshapes young lives but not in a way that creates youth as a precarious class position. Instead, access to family assets in young adulthood is of increasing importance for navigating contemporary insecurities and accessing opportunities. The conditions faced by many young people are conditions in which the relative rewards for types of speculation on the future are heightened for some young people. The rise of the asset economy is central to the changing life chances between generations at a societal level (and potentially encourages generational conflict at this level) but simultaneously enhances the importance of intergenerational solidarities and transfers within the family.

摘要

对青年的研究对于理解连续性和变化以及不平等的再现至关重要。在社会变革的背景下，关于如何在塑造年轻人的生活中考虑到阶级问题的争论由来已久，包括最近呼吁在青年社会学研究中更加关注政治经济学。本文在资产经济兴起的背景下考虑这些争论，在资产对经济分层的重要性日益增加的背景下，制定了一个概念化青年成年期的代际框架，并转变了代际关系。我认为，收入、资产和家庭转移的相互作用改变了年轻人的生活，但不会使年轻人成为不稳定的班级地位。相反，在青年时期获得家庭资产对于驾驭当代不安全感和获得机会变得越来越重要。许多年轻人所面临的条件是某些年轻人对未来的各种猜测的相对回报增加的条件。资产经济的兴起对于在社会层面改变几代人之间的生活机会至关重要（并可能在这一层面鼓励代际冲突），但同时也增强了代际团结和家庭内部转移的重要性。