Combatting the Causes of Inequality Affecting Young People Across Europe

Inequality is one of the most burning issues of our time. It has increased extensively across Europe in recent years. In particular, young people have been affected. What does that depend on? How can it be understood? And most importantly, what can actors at different levels do about it? These are the driving questions of this book. The answers will draw mainly on a European research project where research has been carried out in 10 European cities.

In a theoretically ambitious analysis, this book both applies and develops a cultural political economy approach by systematically aiming at integrating dynamics of current global capitalism in the research on inequality at the local level.

Inequality is one of the most burning issues of our time, affecting young people in particular. What causes inequality? And how can actors at the local level combat the causes, not only the symptoms? By seeking to answer these questions, the book will contribute to this growing and transdisciplinary subject area by using mainly qualitative research and a perspective that integrates theory in every phase of the analysis.

Drawing on cultural political economy, based on critical realism, the author claims that the most important causes of inequality are the ones inherent as potentials in capitalism and the capitalist type of state. Compared with the first post-war decades, these potential causes have been actualised differently since around 1980. They are also actualised differently across Europe. The book explores these differences concerning growth models and welfare regimes. In general, societies have developed into a new condition of social inclusion, which explains why many young people have become excluded. Societal borders have arisen in the cities, separating the winners and losers of inequality.

Positioning itself outside the box of what tends to be the majority of the publications in the field, the book proposes knowledge alliances between young people, policy-makers, civil society and researchers to combat the causes of inequality.