Contenu du sommaire : Grandes vacances, petits boulots.

Young people's holidays : a diverse and evolving reality. Young people's holidays, youth tourism are familiar and well-known notions. And yet, behind these terms lie a while range of extremely diverse realities which are in constant evolution. Between the adolescent and the young adult, between the young job-seeker and the young person who gets the full financial backing of his/ her family, between the young French person and a young person from the Developping World, what a difference ! And yet easily identifiable specificities do exist to characterize youth holidays and tourism ; important sector of industrial tourism at an international level, source of leisure, well-being and personal fulfilment, a dream for many, the world of young people's holidays is sketched out here in its various and multiple aspects and with foreeeable tendancies for the years to come.

Leisure and recreation activitise of 12 to 18 year olds. Between what adults imagine the leisure activities of young people to be, what young people want and what they actually do, there is such a huge gap and so many misunderstandings that it became necessary to find some kind of guidance. The analysis of young people's leisure and recreation activities provides a readable grid of the activities and attitudes of 13-18 year olds. The grid organises the different kinds of activities according to whether they are individual or group activities and tries to discern between what is structural in adolescence and what is conjunctural. A tool for diagnosis, it can be used by those people and institutions who wish to «figure out» young people and check out the coherence between offer and demand. But the grid can also be used as a tool to decision-making, in the use of space, in environmental management, social policy and other activities targetting young people.

Monitoring of holiday projects. The behavioural patterns of young people have changed due to the evolution of society and the current economic situation. According to a survey carried out in the Hauts de Seine the social commitment of 16-25 years old seems quite genuine and can be differentated from the process of professionnal pursuits. It is through ongiving involvement with the voluntary organisation sector that this claim to identity comes particularly to the fore. The study carried out by the Ligue 92 presents these attitudes as the beginnings of a new participative movement. Young people however are coming up against considerable hurdles to their projects, since the institutional and political environment is unaccustomed to these kinds of actions. Furthermore, their behaviour upsets the customary methods of local youth and community workers. Experimenting with a new form of monitoring of these young people, seems to establish the basis for future forms of communication.

Autonomous holidays : projects and compensation. To enable young people aged between 15 and 25 to take themselves off on holiday, local scholarships have gradually been put into place over the past ten years. Apart from variety of arrangements, some common points : help with preparation, awarding of financial help and the pedagogical objectives of autonomy. The objectives confront the professionnals with new issues : -The pedagogy of autonomy is contradictory to the practice of subsidizing : after proceeding by trial and error, it was decided to involve young people in the exchange by negociating some kind of compensation or even by creating small jobs, which further raises queries on the statutury context to be developped and calls into question the dependency engendered by assistance.

Youth «action-holidays» in Corsica. For some time now, the Regional Offices of Youth and Sports in Corsica has been developping a new activity target, local development adviser. By putting some thought into the use of two sites a new «concept» of young people's holidays has emerged : «action-holidays». By using the wide range of facilities already available various kinds of stays can be offered to young people. One moves on from customary compensation to voluntary commitment in local development projects

When the hassle of suburbiar arrives on the beaches. The arrival of suburban youths in the coastal resorts of the Estern Pyrenees triggers off extensive reactions of rejection. These young people are labelled as scapegoats for all the currents evils of the earth and social tensions likely to jeopardize the life of the resorts emerge to an exaggerated backdrop of certain events and the wildest rumours. It is obvious however that, far from putting up with this reaction of rejection, young people from the suburbs partially seek to provoke it through their behaviour and attitude, the way they talk, shout at one another, move or meet up in groups, which are highly noticeable and not acceptable for various reasons, in a social environment accustomed to other standards of behaviour. This contribution provides elements of presentation of the characteristics of the differents kinds of opposing groups, as well as elements of analysis of different factors, local ones in particular, beyond the control of the young people which explains the acuteness of the situation we are able to observe.

Developement of local leisur and recreational activities. Over recent years there has been a gradual downswing of public assistance for holidays trips towards local leisure and recreational activities. First the towns then the family allowance offices introduced facilities enabling young people to be included in leisure activities on a daily basis. The initiative is often marked with pedagogical concern but giving a free rein to disaffected young citizens is neither without its drawbacks nor its contradictions : since obviously young people can be seen rushing into wild consumer flings or considering this support as an entitlement. It is the ever-recurring question about getting everything for nothing. And yet, at the same time, one cannot help wondering. Are we not over-stressing their continuous demands for more ? Perhaps after all, young people would rather have something more contemplative, closer links with an adult, during their holidays.

Socio-analysis of Columbian youth. From the outside the image of Columbia is frequently caricatural : violence, drug-trafficking, guerrilla warfare. And yet the hardships of social life are deeply entrenched in the entire history of the continent. Massive conversion to Christianity, the old fear of ethnic interbreeding, the convulsions of history have sustained a subjectivity crisis which affects, even in everyday life, the passage to modernity. Through a lack of efficient proceedings in cultural mediation, young people are becoming the major victims. Despite the democratic Forum achieved through the 1991 Constitution, an in-depth socio-cultural survey is necessary to enable a genuine involvement of young people in the development of Colombia.

Having a good time through the telecommunications network. We can have a good time in the real world, but also in a second world, of virtual reality, commonly called cyberspace. Here, humankind is free from all social obligations and physical constraints of space and time ; his/ her biological body disappears to re-appear in dematerialised form on the telecommunications networks. The forms of social interaction and collective effervescence charge in relation to those which we are familiar with. The internaut can set up communities and join up with other persons sharing the same areas of interest. One can see predominantly empathic communities being set up. At the end of this century we are confronted with a new form of socializing which is developping in synergy with technological development. Here I have just suggested a few leads before thinking about this technosocializing and about the new person who is living and interacting in cyberspace and whom I have defined as Homo Aestheticus Telematicus.

Between small-time job and profession : the two wheel messengers. Whether they are employed by errand companies or dependant upon public services, messengers stem from an employee or working class background, have dabbled in various jobs before taking up messenger work as a way of escaping hierarchical control and being locked away in an office or a factory. Errand-running is also a way out for those young people with few or no qualifications. The risk-taking is part of the fun and appreciated as such, and it wins acclaim for a job which is still not considered at its true worth as well as justifiying the fairly high earnings in contrast to other vocational sectors requiring the same level of training. However experienced messengers prefer to go easy on the risk taking which is becoming a main reason for giving up the job for fear of a serious accident. The uncertainties of the economic situation encourage young people to stick to this sector and little by little to transform this «small-time job» into an ongoing profession.