Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3, 2002
KAREN EVANS
ABSTRACT The present article provides an overview of ndings from the UK Economic
and Social Research Council’s Youth Citizenship and Social Change Project on how
young adults experience control and exercise agency in differing socioeconomic environ-
ments. The research builds on previous Anglo-German and UK studies (Bynner &
Roberts, 1991; Evans & Heinz, 1994; Evans et al., 2000), which have contrasted the
regulated German and unregulated British approaches to transitions into the labour
market. In the present new study, the ways in which social changes have impacted on
the lives of individuals have been central to the rationale. The Eastern and Western parts
of Germany shared a common culture but operated totally different socioeconomic
systems during communism. West Germany and Britain had different versions of the
same socioeconomic system, but different cultural histories. Britain and Eastern Ger-
many have experienced, from different starting points, strong effects of market forces and
deregulation of previous systems. Government policy in both countries is now focused
on ‘people taking control of their own lives’. The present research has explored
comparatively the life experiences of 900 young adults in the under-researched 18–25
years age group. The sample, drawn from the three cities of Derby, Hannover and
Leipzig, consisted of 300 students in higher education, 300 unemployed and 300
employed young people. Three research eldworkers from the areas under study brought
local knowledge and experience to the research process: Claire Woolley in Derby,
Martina Behrens in Hannover, and Jens Kaluza in Leipzig. Peter Rudd and the National
Foundation of Educational Research collaborated in the design and organization of the
databases and the analysis of data. In answering the question posed in the title, the
research has shown 18–25 year olds to be struggling to take control of their lives, while
the effects of those struggles are bounded in important ways by wider societal features
as well as social background and institutional environments. The range of empirical
encounters with young adults in the chosen ‘terrains’ has led to the development of the
concept of bounded agency to explore and explain experiences of control and personal
agency of 18–25 year olds in the settings of higher education, employment, unemploy-
ment and in their personal lives.
Introduction
Youth research is a prime eld for the interdisciplinary investigation of the
manifestations and effects of social change. Its actors are at the frontier of
changes in the opportunity structures of the labour market. Research into the
position of young people nding their ways in the social landscapes of late
modernity promises unique insights into the operation of new forces at work.
Karen Evans, University of London, Institute of Education, 55 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0NT, UK.
Research and analysis in this eld has a tendency either to over-emphasize the
continuities of deep-seated structural inuences or to over-emphasize the dis-
continuities and changes in young people’s lives. Gudmundsson (2000) has
argued that these positions tend to be reinforced by the methodology chosen,
and he calls for greater methodological diversity in grappling with the complex-
ities of the situation of contemporary youth.
No researcher in this eld has seriously doubted that social structures such as
ethnicity, gender and occupation or socioeconomic status have a signicant
impact on the life chances and life experiences of young adults. Such a view has
driven much post-war theoretical thinking on the position of young people in
society and the possibilities that they have in higher education, training and
employment. The introduction of the concept of ‘agency’, however, is a rela-
tively new development. This came about as sociologists and others recognized
that the inuence of social structures was not direct, nor was it deterministic.
Young people’s experiences of life were complicated by the fact that they can
react and respond to structural inuences, that they can make their own
decisions with respect to a number of major, as well as minor, life experiences
and that they can actively shape some important dimensions of their experiences
(Rudd & Evans, 1998). Several recent studies of youth transitions, based in a
number of different countries, have converged in recognition of the need to
reconsider both structural inuences and the sense of agency and control
displayed by young people as they move into adulthood and various stages and
forms of independence:
The evidence in these studies indicates that many in the younger
generation are becoming increasingly pro-active in the face of risk and
uncertainty of outcomes, and are making pragmatic choices for them-
selves which enable them to maintain their aspirations despite the
persistence of structural inuences on their lives. (Wyn & Dwyer, 1999,
p. 5)
Youth transitions research has been forced to move in a number of new
directions and to explore the use of new frameworks, terminologies and meth-
ods in understanding these phenomena. As Wyn and Dwyer argue:
The evidence suggests that the life experience and future prospects of
this generation are more complex and less predictable than those of
their predecessors, and that consequently the established linear models
of transition to adulthood and future careers are increasingly inappro-
priate… This convergence of evidence from different countries and
continents points to a need to re-examine established understandings of
‘transitions’ and the frameworks which have been adopted in much
youth research in the past. (1999, p. 5)
This research builds on earlier Anglo-German Studies, as reported in Bynner &
Roberts’ (1991) Youth and Work. Transitions to Employment in England and Germany
and Evans & Heinz’ (1994) Becoming Adults in England and Germany, which
compared career trajectories and institutional structures for youth transitions in
these two countries. Both systems were found to have strengths and weaknesses,
but transitions to work in England tended to be ‘accelerated’, whereas in
Germany they were ‘extended’. These studies contributed to the development of
a number of conceptual frameworks including the notion of ‘career trajectory’
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 247
The present research has moved towards an expanded concept informed by the
work of Emirbayer & Mische (1998), ‘a temporally embedded process of social
engagement’ in which past habits and routines are contextualized and future
possibilities envisaged within the contingencies of the present moment’, to arrive
at a metaphor for socially situated agency, inuenced but not determined by
structures and emphasizing internalized understandings and frameworks as
well as external actions.
The second, related, concept of ‘control’ started with the ideas of control beliefs
as ‘subjective representations of [the person’s] capabilities to exercise control’
(Flammer, 1997). This is distinct from the actual exercise of control, which can be
considered as the regulation of process. According to Flammer, control beliefs
can be conceptualized as a composite of contingency and competence beliefs.
Contingency beliefs are beliefs in the probability that certain actions will affect
outcomes in particular ways. Competence beliefs are the beliefs people have
about their capabilities to act in ways that will produce the probable outcomes.
The distinctions between contingency and competence in Flammer’s work are
parallelled by the identication of two components in the work of Bandura
(1997). Bandura has characterized control beliefs as a combination of expecta-
tions: ‘response–outcome’ expectations, plus efcacy expectation. Flammer’s
work concentrated on the development of three dimensions of control beliefs:
the ontogenic development of the structure of control beliefs, individual differ-
ences in the strength of control beliefs, and the ‘micro-genesis’ of a given control
belief. A fourth dimension is discussed only briey: variations in the strength
and domains of control beliefs for different age groups and cultures. The present
research is centrally concerned with this ‘fourth dimension’ in ways that are
informed in part by the prior work on the structural composition of control
beliefs. The composite ‘control belief’ is a personal construct that is linked to
environmental inuences in complex ways, and is differentially constructed
throughout the life course and in different domains of experience.
In the present research, we have focused on control beliefs, agency and those
attributes and behaviours that imply agency and feelings of control. In so doing,
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 249
Dimension One
The rst dimension is that of social determinism versus individualization and
reexivity in social biographies. The development of the individualization thesis
is accredited to a number of German sociologists, and the usual starting point is
Beck’s outline of a new type of society based on ‘reexive modernization’, which
he called a Risk Society (Beck, 1992, 1998). The notion of a ‘risk society’ has been
applied to the situation of an uncertain and fragmented transition experienced
by a young person. Individualization is part of the dissolution of the traditional
parameters of industrial society, including class culture and consciousness,
gender and family roles: ‘These de-traditionalizations happen in a social surge
of individualization’ (Beck, 1992, p. 87). Within the ‘individualized society’, the
individual must learn ‘to conceive of himself or herself as the centre of action,
as the planning ofce with respect to his/her own biography’ (p. 135). Baethge
(1989) took this thesis further by applying it to the situation of youth in
industrialized societies. He made reference to ‘the disappearance of class-specic
socialization structures’ and to a new trend towards ‘double individualization’
(Baethge, 1989, pp. 28–31). The latter trend involved, rst, the structural disinte-
gration of social classes or strata into ‘individualized’ sub-groups and, second,
the formation of individualistic identities at the expense of collective identity
(see also Sennett, 1998). These perspectives stress the need for new categories
because the old labels or descriptions of youth transitions simply no longer t
and have lost their explanatory power. There may well be an acknowledgement
within this perspective that inequalities remain—indeed, very few writers in the
eld would argue that inequality has disappeared—but social classes are now
diffused or have disappeared. As proponents of the idea that people are agents
actively and individually engaged in the construction of their own biographies,
Beck and Baethge are thus positioned close to the base of the cube.
Furlong & Cartmel (1997) have argued that these accounts of individualization
are based on an epistemological fallacy. The social world has come to be regarded
as unpredictable and lled with risks that can only be negotiated on an
individual level, while structural forces operate as powerfully as ever, and while
the chains of human interdependence remain intact. Furlong and Cartmel are
thus positioned high on the structure/agency dimension.
The underlying aim in the present study is to uncover how young adults
experience control and exercise personal agency, exploring the subjectivities
associated with choice and determination under differing structural and cultural
conditions. What kinds of beliefs and perspectives do people have on their
future possibilities? How far do they feel in control of their lives? What is the
interplay between these subjectivities and social characteristics of age, gender
and social class? How does what people believe is possible for them (their
250 K. Evans
Dimension Two
The second dimension emphasizes internal versus external control processes.
Bandura, Elder, Flammer and other ‘efcacy’ researchers have emphasized
internal processes of the ‘acting individual’ in relation to the external environ-
ment. There are limitations to personal control in all domains of life. There are
some aspects of environment and personal circumstance that are extremely
difcult to change. Others can be overcome by the exercise of initiative and
learning. Rothbaum et al. (1982) distinguished between primary and secondary
modes of control. People exercising primary control try to change their environ-
ment in ways that they feel will better t their aspirations. Or they try to change
their environment to t with their subjective perceptions. Secondary control
operates in reverse, by changing subjective perceptions, aspirations and interpre-
tations to match the environment. When primary control fails or is expected to
fail because of the obstacles that the individual perceives to be operating,
secondary control comes into play more strongly. Flammer (1997) hypothesizes
that a gradual shift from primary to secondary control can be expected over the
life course. It can also be expected that there are large individual differences in
the limits that are encountered early in adult life, and that these also vary
between different socioeconomic and cultural environments.
Human development in the rst three decades of life involves increasing
individual control and beliefs. Beliefs in a certain amount of control become
important for well being (see, for example, Connolly, 1989). Studies of over-esti-
mation of control beliefs have shown the developmental value of high control
beliefs (Flammer, 1997, p. 85). Over-estimation of control increases scope for
further development in children. It has been argued that schooling fails to
maximize human potential by reducing control beliefs for signicant numbers of
children. Heckhausen and Krüger (1993) have also shown that desired attributes
are seen as more controllable than undesired ones among younger, middle-aged
and older adults. People who are directly affected by important changes hold
higher control beliefs in relation to these changes than people who are not yet
directly concerned with them. This applies particularly to life-course transitions.
People also have illusions about control, which go beyond simple over-esti-
mation. People sometimes believe they are exerting control even over clearly
random events. Taylor & Brown (1988) have reviewed evidence of control
illusion as it relates to judgement of the future. Most people believe that things
will improve for them in the future, that their own future will improve more
than that of others, and that there is a lower likelihood that undesirable events
will happen to them. It is held that control illusions are important for personal
well being, as well as the ‘capacity for creative and productive work’ and the
ability to care for others. What are the conditions under which individuals
develop beliefs in high or low control? Flammer comments that research has
mainly centred on educational environments and has not examined what he
terms the ‘broader ecology of socialisation’. Whether a person under-estimates
or over-estimates their extent of control is very consequential on their experi-
ences and socialization.
As we put it in Evans & Heinz (1994):
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 251
Dimension Three
The third dimension places the focus on social reproduction versus conversion,
exploring the degree to which social mobility and transformation can be at-
tributed to individual and collective scope for action. The original position of
rational choice or rational action theorists was that people tend to act in ways
that are rational in the situation in which they nd themselves. In arguing for a
‘privileged’ theory of action, development of this theoretical line has had to
accommodate the numerous cases of action that are apparently not rational by
objective criteria. The arguments that such actions are always subjectively
rational (i.e. that they appear rational from the actors’ point of view) weakens
the theory as a sociological theory of action unless the systematic tendencies are
investigated and explained. Based on law of large numbers, Goldthorpe (1998)
has emphasized the over-riding importance of analysing the conditions under
which actors come to act, from the sociological perspective. He argues that
people act systematically, rather than just idiosyncratically, in a way that is
subjectively rational. He argues that sociologists should concentrate their ex-
planatory efforts on the situation of action rather than on the psychology of the
acting individual, aiming to show how social, structural and processional
features of a situation may cause the actor to make choices that are not
objectively rational, but are rational from the actor’s point of view (i.e. subjec-
tively).
Rationality in action is seen as situationally rather than procedurally deter-
mined.
it is far more illuminating to investigate empirically, across societies
and cultures, those more particular structures and processes—at the
level of social networks, group afliations and institutions—by which
patterns of action are guided into conformity with specied standards
of rationality or are deected from them. (Goldthorpe, 1998, p. 189,
footnote 15)
Furlong & Cartmel’s (1997) emphasis on structural determinants, external pro-
cesses and social reproduction places the ‘epistemological fallacy’ argument
towards the back right-hand intersection, while Bourdieu’s (1993) emphasis on
social reproduction is also high but emphasizes subjectivities of the acting
individual and explores agency in relation to ‘habitus’ and ‘eld’.
252 K. Evans
that he/she is in control of his/her life course and that occupational success is
largely based on individual effort, while there may be a whole mass of data and
theory, developed at a national, societal or ‘macro’ level, which suggests that
many young people, especially from particular social groups or ‘trajectories’,
have only limited chances of ‘success’ (conventionally dened) in the labour
market. This is just a particular manifestation of a classic problem for social
and educational researchers: there is a possible discrepancy between individual/
subjective viewpoints and larger-scale social and structural patterns and trends.
The difculty for these enquiries can be stated as follows: how can the social
research design take account of both the micro and the macro dimensions of
complex educational, social and economic processes in the transitions that are
part of early adulthood? Consequently, as well as the substantive aims already
outlined, the present study also has the methodological aims of further develop-
ing research strategies that can take account of the diversity of individual and
structural dimensions affecting young people’s transitions. Researchers need to
consider how to faithfully and accurately discover, articulate and map out
people’s attitudes and beliefs relating to their education, training and career
opportunities, and particularly the part these young adults play themselves in
creating these opportunities. We need to give consideration to the language used
and the methodological stages and procedures required in such research inves-
tigations. How are theoretical conceptions of structure and agency to be linked
with the ‘lived realities’ of young adults experiencing the multiple transitions
and ‘status inconsistencies’ in their lives?
One way of researching agency in human lives is to examine cases holistically
and longitudinally, as Bloomer (1999) and Bloomer & Hodkinson (2000) have
shown. Another approach lies in comparing the ways people report and contex-
tualize, in the present moment, past behaviours and future possibilities. As they
experience transitions in their lives from different social locations dened by
age, gender and social class, these behaviours and perceived possibilities are
mediated by cultural factors such as normative ‘expectations’ and socioeconomic
structural features such as labour markets and welfare systems.
It is the second approach we have used in this research, extending the
methodological framework successfully used in previous studies. This frame-
work has been strongly inuenced by the work of Ragin (1991), who holds that
good comparative social science balances holistic study of cases within contexts
with analysis of key variables across contexts. The aim is to develop what Ragin
has termed an extended dialogue between ideas and evidence, exploring data
and evidence from multiple sources iteratively with reference to theoretical ideas
and frameworks discussed earlier.
Methods
There were three overlapping ‘layers’ of research.
· Information gathering: documentary analysis and the gathering of as much
information about the young people, their colleges, workplaces and their
contexts as possible.
· Structured questionnaires: administered to samples of approximately 100
respondents in each of the settings, producing mainly quantitative data.
· Group interviews: with sub-samples drawn from the questionnaire respon-
dents in each of the settings, producing mainly qualitative data.
254 K. Evans
The methodological stages outlined were used to work a way into young
people’s subjective perspectives on transitions and status passages in work,
education and their personal lives. The use of both structured and unstructured
techniques meant that several different viewpoints (e.g. ofcial, unofcial, insti-
tutional, group, individual) were represented and triangulation of methods and
of data sources strengthened the validity of the study’s ndings. The aim has not
been to draw conclusions about the wider populations of England and Germany,
but to uncover commonalities and differences in the experiences of samples of
18–25 year olds matched by institutional setting in three cities, with nation
providing part of the sociopolitical and structural environment that affects
experience in signicant ways. Our extended analysis of the sociopolitical
environments has been published in Evans et al. (2000).
With the co-operation of the College and University Principals, their Heads of
Department and the subject tutors, Chambers of Commerce, Labour Administra-
tions and a range of voluntary and community organizations, broadly represen-
tative samples were obtained for each type of ‘institutional setting’ in each
locality. Close liaison between the team members allowed adjustments to made
to ensure that the social categories of age, gender and occupational/educational
level were adequately represented, as well as broad elds of employment and
study, as appropriate. Nine hundred questionnaires were completed. The inter-
view samples were selected from questionnaire respondents who had agreed to
be part of the group interviews, with the aim of maximizing comparability of the
groups. The aim was to conduct 18 group interviews: two in each of the three
settings in each of the cities, involving in total at least 108 of the survey
participants. In practice, 21 interviews were carried out involving 136 partici-
pants [3].
In line with the aim of contributing to the reconceptualization of agency as a
process in which past habits and routines are contextualized and future possibil-
ities envisaged within the contingencies of the present moment, the question-
naire was structured to capture features of past lives, current experiences and
orientations, and future perspectives of our research participants. The German
and English versions of the questionnaires and group interview frameworks
were developed together and piloted [4]. The aim throughout was to link the
three layers of qualitative, quantitative and documentary data to gain a full
understanding of the positions of our respondents in their ‘social landscapes’.
Selected Findings
A starting point was to analyse the data for each of the three groups (higher
education, employed and unemployed) separately, comparing the ndings for
each of the groups across and between the three localities (Derby, Hannover and
Leipzig). Findings specic to each of the three groups have been published
separately: Behrens & Evans (2002) on the experiences of the unemployed
respondents, Evans (2002) on the higher education respondents, and Woolley
(2002) on the employed respondents. These papers illustrate how initial analyses
were placed in context, combining sources of data to arrive at an initial
understanding of the position of each group. Our next stage of analysis extended
to 3 3 3 comparisons across groups and cities, rst exploring questions of
structure and agency, and then focusing on the exploratory research questions.
A factor analysis carried out on the full quantitative data set identied 12 factors
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 255
Gender
The majority of group interview participants saw the effects of gender in life
chances as outweighed in importance by the effects of educational qualications,
effort and performance. In this respect, the qualitative evidence was consistent
with the questionnaire response patterns. Despite this, there was awareness that
particular sectors of the labour market remain biased towards one or other sex.
Beyond this, more subtle forms of sexism were seen to be operating, such as
people being stereotyped by the way they look and women having to perform
better than men in order to gain an equal degree of respect. There were frequent
references to ‘competence’ overriding other factors, but within an overall aware-
ness that there are differentials in the levels and status achieved by females and
males in employment and the economy.
More generally, the interview transcripts revealed awareness of gender
alongside the individual attribution of success, with a sense of acceptance by
young women of the need to prove oneself more as a female. While there were
quite powerful discourses around gender in many of the groups, there were
differences in emphasis in the perceptions of scope and limits for choice and
equality of treatment. Even the English groups appear more differentiated than
Arnot (2000) has suggested. The demands of child-bearing and child-rearing
were at the forefront of the thoughts of our German female respondents.
In the German interviews, although women were generally seen as having the
same chances as men at work, the view was often expressed that women must
at some point ‘choose between work and family’. In the questionnaire responses,
many more women than men gave priority to ‘child-rearing possibilities’ as
something they wanted from work in all areas, but more in Germany than in
Derby. However, the largest proportion in any group who considered this a
priority was 50 per cent (Leipzig females in higher education). There is little
evidence of the emergence of the ‘new man’ who pays close attention to family
considerations.
Differences in male and female views of equality in society as measured by the
factor ‘believes opportunities are open to all’ were found only in Leipzig, where
females generally believed less that equality existed. This was the case irrespec-
tive of their situation in education, employment or unemployment [6].
Across all areas, males had more experience of being unemployed on more
than one occasion. In Hannover and Leipzig, males from working-class back-
grounds were most likely to experience this [7]. In Derby, the number of male
respondents experiencing multiple employment was only slightly higher than
females across the social spectrum. Males in Hannover and Leipzig were also
found to have been signicantly more active in searching for work (factor A(1)).
These ndings together appear to conrm that males are having a tougher time
in penetrating the labour market and nding stable employment, and that this
is the case particularly for males of working class origin in Hannover and
Leipzig. In Derby, female respondents were found to view their futures
signicantly more positively than males.
There was evidence of females behaving with a higher degree of agency than
males, at least in some respects. For example, females tended to leave the
258 K. Evans
parental home earlier than males, and were more open to the possibility of
moving away from the area they currently lived in. These are examples of
agency at an individual level. They also exhibited higher levels of collective
agency in that they were found to be more politically active. This difference was
apparent in the most difcult environments. A possible explanation is that
females are more resilient, becoming disengaged less easily than males. Remark-
ably consistent differences emerged across the three areas between males and
females in higher education that appeared to reect greater agency on the part
of the female respondents.
Social Class
Similarly, discussion of social background is inuenced by different meanings in
Germany, particularly in Leipzig where class pride (for manual workers and
farmers) in the GDR was replaced by class-based disadvantage for the former at
least. The interview approach aimed to gain insights into this is various ways,
through the questions that asked about inuences of family background, obsta-
cles, both material and social, and through open questions about the factors that
affect and inuence occupational destinations and ‘career’. Ethnicity of the
respondents reected the distribution in the local population in each institu-
tional setting, as far as possible, but the differences in the nature of the
population groups and the numbers were insufcient for statistical analysis to be
meaningful [8].
Social class awareness is shown to be mixed in with family and gender
dimensions in complex ways, with much reference throughout the interviews to
the importance of ‘social connections’ and the invisible social factors, beyond
qualication and competence, which affect success.
English respondents were more likely than their German peers to change their
job expectations, usually (but not always) in an upwards direction. English
respondents were also more independent of their parents in all groups. Social
class was perceived to be more important in Germany (56 per cent stating this
has considerable effect in Leipzig, 45 per cent in Hannover) than in England (28
per cent in Derby). In the group interviews, a minority of participants were
willing to talk about their life experiences directly within a social class perspec-
tive, but many respondents, especially students in Germany, were aware of the
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 259
Figure 4. Factor ‘planning not chance’ by social class within areas (control 5). Figure
is based on comparisons of factor score means.
Comparing Feelings of Control: Views of the Self and Feelings of Control in Different
Settings
Our third research question asked whether educational settings foster stronger
feelings of control than the employment and unemployment settings in which
people experience the full realities of the operations of the labour market [14].
This question, together with our questions about optimism, stemmed from our
earlier work with 16–19 year olds in full-time education, which showed high
levels of optimism, positive expectations and feelings of control even in de-
pressed labour market conditions.
The pattern of responses is strongly indicative of greater feelings of control
and agency among those in employment settings than among those in the
environments of higher education and unemployment (which are both more
‘uncertain’ but in different ways). The items and factor scores that discriminated
most between groups were related to self-condence, reecting self-trust and
feelings of capability to deal with circumstances as they are (see Fig. 2). Views
on the importance of individual effort, ability and luck in shaping life chances
showed a higher belief in ability and effort in the English groups, with higher
proportions identifying with the statements ‘that getting a job depends on
ability’ (Derby, 83 per cent; Hannover, 65 per cent; Leipzig, 54 per cent), and that
‘people deserve their success’ (Derby, 61 per cent; Hannover, 40 per cent;
Leipzig, 29 per cent). Although the proportions holding this belief decrease from
the higher education to the employed group, and from the employed to the
unemployed group, the majority in all three groups agreed with these state-
ments. Smaller majorities in Germany agreed that getting jobs depends on ability
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 261
(consistent with the earlier ndings) but a minority in both German cities held
the view that people usually deserve their success [15]. The statement ‘Talent
always nds its way to the top’ produced much higher agreement from the
Derby higher education and employed groups than from their Leipzig counter-
parts. About one-fth disagreed in all cities; many of the German respondents
recorded that they did not know. While these responses from the Derby group
suggest a strong belief in individual effort and ability, this does not mean that
they are blind to the effects of social status and class in affecting life chances.
The English respondents’ belief in the importance of individual effort was
found, in previous work, to be accompanied by a degree of optimism, whatever
the state of their local labour market (Bynner and Roberts, 1991; Rudd & Evans,
1998). We asked whether optimism would decline in older age ranges as the
realities of the labour market and other constraints were experienced more
directly, and compared mean factor scores for the factor F(2) ‘negative views of
the future’. There were no signicant differences by age, between the younger
(18–21 year olds) and older (22–25 year olds) in any of the settings or areas.
Further analysis, however, has produced a more differentiated account, when
analysed between settings. Respondents in the employed and higher education
groups reected the relatively high levels of optimism shown by our previous
full-time education and apprenticeship-based groups. Small differences between
respondents with higher and lower occupational status were not statistically
signicant. The responses of the unemployed groups showed individual attri-
bution of failure to greater or lesser degrees irrespective of age. In comparisons
between areas, the results suggest that negative views of prospects do begin to
bite in the more economically depressed areas, in the 18–25 years age range, as
people come up against the realities of the labour market (see Fig. 2).
Contradictory responses suggested that respondents in the UK groups feel
‘forced’ into unemployment schemes and therefore not ‘in control’, while at the
same time feeling individually responsible for their predicament. They believed
it was down to them to get out of their situation, despite the negative environ-
ment. They experienced stress in dealing with their situation, and emphasized
‘being realistic’ about what they can achieve. There was little fatalism expressed
in any of the interview responses, which were suggestive of frustrated agency
rather than lack of agentic abilities or attitudes. This is consistent with the
individual attribution of failure and suggests that compulsion in schemes may
be counterproductive, particularly in the UK environment [16]. The responses
from the West German samples show that these see the unemployment schemes,
which seek to ‘imitate’ the apprenticeship, as the way back to a ‘standardized’
career, while in Eastern Germany the schemes are seen as a kind of state-created
labour market.
Bounded Agency
The analysis of the research ndings has demonstrated the interfusion of agency
and structural inuences, and that contradictions are sometimes apparent in the
respondents’ positions and views. Dualistic treatments of structure and agency
quickly become problematic. In the present short report, it has been possible
only to convey some themes or ‘motifs’ emerging from the group interviews. It
has not been possible in an article of this length to do justice to the rich
engagements that illuminated many aspects of the analysis. The combined data
262 K. Evans
showed that, despite feelings of lack of control in the least advantaged groups
and disbelief in some of the principles of individualism and meritocracy, most
research participants attached considerable importance to individual effort and
expressed the belief that if people worked hard and achieved suitable
qualications then they should be able to follow their own independent pathway
in adult life. Social connections, forging them and ‘making them work for you’,
as well as the importance of image and self-presentation were much empha-
sized. They are certainly not blind to the inuences of economic and social
structures, but the least advantaged emphasized that they have to be ‘realistic’
in their individual aspirations and goals. It was striking that there was little
sense of fatalism in any of the interview encounters, with only three interactions
out of hundreds coded as displaying fatalistic attitudes. Frustrated agency and
struggle characterized the day-to-day experiences of many of the young people
who were in disadvantaged situations. In explaining the individual attributions
of success and failure within socially structured environments and the almost
universal recognition of the importance of ‘qualications’, we have looked
through the lens of agency as a socially situated process, shaped by the
experiences of the past, the chances present in the current moment and the
perceptions of possible futures, to nd the concept of bounded agency. These
young adults are undoubtedly manifesting a sense of agency, but there are a
number of boundaries or barriers that circumscribe and sometimes prevent the
expression of agency. The ndings also further challenge the simplistic appli-
cation of the concept of ‘individualization’ in differing socioeconomic and
cultural environments, in ways which imply or assume unilinear trends within
undifferentiated contexts of ‘modernization’.
One of our starting points (Rudd & Evans, 1998) was to argue that many
studies of youth transitions have under-estimated the degree of choice or agency
evident in transitional processes. While the ‘individualization’ thesis places
agency centre stage, accounts of individualization and structuration, as Gud-
mundsson (2000) has pointed out, are no more than theoretical sketches, which
can be developed and contested in ‘empirical encounters’. This has allowed for
the emergence of a range of ‘middle ground’ theoretical positions (Fig. 5).
The present research together with the English and Anglo-German studies
that preceded it offer an accumulating set of empirical encounters through
which the limits and possibilities of theoretical and analytical approaches can be
considered [17]. The evidence (Evans et al., 2000) suggests that agency operates
in differentiated and complex ways in relation to the individual’s subjectively
perceived frames for action and decision. Thus, a person’s frame has boundaries
and limits that can change over time, but that have structural foundations in
ascribed characteristics such as gender and social/educational inheritance, in
acquired characteristics of education and qualication, and in the segments of
the labour market into which these lead. In this and other respects, the hypoth-
esis that a ‘structured individualization’ process [18] is apparent in the experi-
ence, values and behaviour of young people is supported. While structured
individualization accounts for the variety of experiences and incidences of
interrupted or broken transitions in all social groups as well as for the class-
based and gender-based linkages in planning orientations and horizons, it shifts
the attention back onto the operation of structures rather than understanding
agency and the agency–structure interfusion. Our expanded notion of agency
recognizes socially situated agency. We look at agency as it operates in the social
Agency in Young Adult Transitions
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Economic and Social Research
266 K. Evans
Council for their funding of the Major Award Number L 134 251 011, Youth
Citizenship and Social Change Programme. The author’s thanks also go to John
Dobby, Senior Statistician, National Foundation for Educational Research, and
Louise Dartnell, University of Surrey, for their invaluable help in data prep-
aration and analysis.
Notes
[1] The relative neglect of post-school learner and control/agency beliefs in the earlier literature
from the social psychological perspective is indicative of the pre-occupation with schooling as
the main site of learning.
[2] This book, published by Macmillan in 2000, combines analysis carried out under both the
Anglo-German Foundation funded study and the present ESRC study.
[3] The further interviews were undertaken where it was considered desirable to have additional
interview material available because of differences in balance and emphasis and in the conduct
of the interviews.
[4] Throughout the research, differences in meanings would have to be addressed. As with all
international studies, particular issues arise over comparability of educational level and
occupational level. Our approach, informed by previous work (Bynner & Roberts, 1991; Evans
& Heinz, 1993; Evans et al., 2000), ensured that these differences in meaning were taken into
account from the outset and were borne centrally in mind in the analysis and interpretation of
the data. The analysis, statistically , utilized cross-tabulations, factor analysis, index construction
and correlations including some multivariate work. The qualitative interview transcripts were
fully transcribed, coded and analysed with the aid of the software package ‘NVivo’.
[5] While the samples reected the ethnic composition of the population in each of three settings
in each locality, the numbers were insufcient for conclusions to be drawn.
[6] The greater visibility and general awareness of social inequalities in Leipzig, compared with
Derby and Hannover, is disproportionately attributed to female perception in the area. This is
not surprising in the light of evidence (Diewald, 2000) that women were among the most
downwardly mobile groups in the East of Germany following reunication.
[7] A multivariate analysis showed that having a greater number of periods of unemployment
longer than four weeks was related to perception of ‘chance’, political inactivity, being male,
older and having had more than one type of setback.
[8] Derby has a signicant black population, Hannover a Turkish population, and Leipzig has an
incoming population from Russia and some of the other Eastern European countries.
[9] After exploring NSEC, we decided to use the Registrar-General’s Scale for Coding of Social
Class, which has in-built problems of comparability because of different denitions of skill
level. Because of difculties of comparing skill level within the manual occupations (combined
with a high level of non-response to this question), a ve-fold classication has been used for
the purpose of analysis: Professional, Managerial, Other Non-Managerial, Manual, and Never
Worked.
[10] Composite of items including goal orientation and alignment of career with personal interests.
[11] See Beck (1992), Bandura (1995), Ziehe (1996), and Baethge (1989).
[12] Bivariate correlation analyses showed that a planning orientation was related to being of
managerial class, not being of manual class, having had no major setbacks, leaving full-time
education later, being employed and believing that you might move to another area at some
point in your career.
[13] It should be noted, however, that the chart masks important differences by setting. In the higher
education group, for example, it was the skilled non-manual that scored highest in the Derby
sample.
[14] We have reviewed the importance of control beliefs with reference to Bandura (1995). In the
research, we have explored these alongside related self-evaluations and views of the self, and
carried out analyses to identify the main factors. The expanded SELF factors are given in Tables
2.13–2.18 of Evans (2001a).
[15] These differences were further tested through comparisons of the factor score means, which
conrmed that the German sample have stronger feelings than their Derby peers, and that
individual ability goes unrewarded, irrespective of setting when compared with their Derby
peers.
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 267
[16] See also ndings of the parallel project in the Youth Citizenship and Social Change Programme
(Harris et al.).
[17] Our full treatment of this is in preparation for publication by Kluwer (2003) as a sequel to ‘From
socialisation to post-modernity’ (Rudd, 1999).
[18] See, for example, Heinz (1999), Roberts (1995) and Engel and Strasser (1998).
[19] See, for example, Ball et al. (2000).
[20] Initial ndings on gender were presented at the American Educational Research Association
Conference 2000 and have been elaborated in Woolley (2002).
[21] See Evans et al. (2000).
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We acquired samples that were representative of respective populations within setting within area.
This being the case, it is valid to compare any of the nine samples with each other and to view the
differences as being indicative of differences in the respective populations.
We have no reason to believe that any systematic bias will have been introduced, from the way
the samples were drawn within areas within settings, and hence the expected values of statistics in
these samples should be the same as their corresponding population values. We also have no reason
to believe that the variance of these statistics in the samples will be systematically different from
their variance in the corresponding populations, and hence we can estimate the population variance
from the sample variance and hence the sampling distribution of any of these statistics under
random sampling. Since extreme results are no more likely to arise from using our sampling strategy
than from using simple random sampling, then a result that is found to be signicant using standard
statistical tests can (as usual) be interpreted as indicating that there are real differences in the
respective populations. All differences referred to in the text were initially identied as signicant
at least at the P , 0.05 level, as a basis for further inquiry and analysis using the full set of data
sources.
Occasionally , the setting samples have been combined within area. This is valid for comparative
purposes, where the aim is to identify relative response differences that may be attributed to the
external features of the labour market or national differences, but the composite samples must not
be taken as representative of the city populations.
Factor Analysis
For the factor analysis, we used the classical factor analytical model, in which variables in the
analysis have both common variance (communality) and unique variance, and in which the rst
estimate of communality is derived from the squared multiple correlation. In other words, we used
principal axis factoring for the factor extraction. We then wanted to rotate these initial factors to give
factors that could be easily labelled. To achieve this, we chose orthogonal rather than correlated
Agency in Young Adult Transitions 269
factors (to make the respective factors distinct) and chose a method of rotation (VARIMAX) that
minimizes the number of variables having a high loading on a factor. Factor scales used in the
analysis had reliabilitie s (alphas) ranging between 0.6 and 0.9. The comparisons of factor score means
were used principally to identify areas for further analysis using the full set of data sources.