Contenu du sommaire : Jeunes, "riches" et "pauvres"

‘Privileged young people' and others‘Privileged' young people—in spite of the heterogeneity of that social group—have in common the fact that they combine cultural, economic, social and school related resources. The socialisation of these young people is to a great extent taken care of within the family circle which looks to educational institutions for support, including abroad. These bring, on top of an excellent academic level, educational experiences that rely on the extracurricular activities to promote the passing on of values, behaviours and specific modes of acknowledgment.

Travels and ‘privileged' youth
The travels of young people with a privileged social background are part of a long elitist tradition of formation. If their parents do not possess the same means as the cosmopolitan elites, they try to recreate the modalities of transmission of socially discriminating dispositions (propensity for mobility, languages, social and cultural open-mindedness, etc...). One can get an idea of this process through their uses of the ERASMUS exchange program and the example of a few holiday patterns. In both cases, knowledge is being passed on as much as social know-how.

Youth of suburban houses
If many works analyse the sociability, the trajectories of young people from underprivileged neighbourhoods or their families' educational practices, few have paid attention to young people living in suburban houses. Based on an ethnographic type of survey in a Parisian suburb neighbourhood, this text explores the patterns of juvenile socialisation of young people living in suburban houses and their ambivalent relations to young people from underprivileged neighbourhoods. It then goes on to analyse the insecurity of their professional future and the importance of their social anchoring in the neighbourhood.

Working-class youth confronting academic ranking/rating/position
Following a reminder as to the fact that the academic degree obtained determines more than ever young people's social and professional integration, the author shows how very early school rankings, the recent norm of postgraduate studies and the devaluation of vocational training weigh on school trajectories and heavily penalise young people especially those with a working-class background. Those among them who set out to study at university level experience their student status as ambivalent. This article lays a strong emphasis on the divisions between working-class youth and upper middle-class youth as well as on the shortcomings of public policies.

Children of ‘social opening'. This article focuses on what becomes of students attending an experimental ‘prépa' (preparatory school) to ‘grandes écoles' (élite schools) designed for those who took their baccalauréat (a-levels) in a Zone d'Education Prioritaire (Education Action Zone). Having been accepted in prestigious lycées and then, for some, in a ‘grande école', these young people experience a social displacement that opens their horizon and places them more or less durably in an awkward position. After the competitive examinations, those not accepted are compelled to rephrase their aspirations and to adapt to public university. Those who get accepted see their ‘elect' status confirmed and attempt to negotiate the tensions arising out of their displacement.

‘Problems, they don't stay where they are, they come with you'. ‘Youth' and ‘mobility' are two commonly associated categories that both need to be deconstructed. If the increase in residential mobility at the start of working life has given rise to numerous analyses, their meaning with regards to young people from a working-class background is rarely explored as such. By retracing the trajectory of a Portuguese, son of a factory worker who, for a long time, navigated between unskilled construction jobs, unemployment, illegal activities and small independence, we offer an exploratory analysis of the way in which precariousness can be made patent within geographical instability.