Based on qualitative research carried out with young people aged from 18 to 30 in five European countries, Young Europeans, Work and Family examines young people's pathways to adulthood, and their perspectives on their future work and family lives.

This enlightening book investigates young people from a range of social classes and at various phases in their life: in training, in higher education, in insecure work and in steady jobs, including high- and low-status employment. The study was carried out by a cross-disciplinary team of researchers from Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the UK, countries that represent a variety of economic profiles and welfare state regimes.

Julia Brannen, Susan Lewis, Anne Nilsen

1. Julia Brannen, Suzan Lewis, Ann Nilsen and Janet Smithson Introduction 2. Janet Smithson and Julia Brannen Qualitative Methodology in Cross-National Research 3. Ann Nilsen and Julia Brannen Theorising the Individiual-Structure Dynamic 4. Julia Brannen and Ann Nilsen Young People's Perspectives on the Future 5. Suzan Lewis, Janet Smithson and Clarissa Kugelberg Into Work: Job Insecurity and Changing Psychological Contracts 6. Pat O'Connor and Janet Smithson Young Peoples' Awareness of Gendered Realities 7. Julia Brannen, Clarissa Kugelberg, Maria das Dores Guerreiro and Janet Smithson Imagining Parenthood and Employment: Connected or Disconnected Worlds? 8. Suzan Lewis, Janet Smithson and Maria das Dores Guerreiro Into Parenthood: Young People's Sense of Entitlement to Support for the Reconciliation of Employment and Family life 9. Ann Nilsen, Maria das Dores Guerreiro and Julia Brannen 'Most Choices Involve Money': Different Pathways to Adulthood