Youth unemployment and insecurities in the labour market have increased significantly in Europe in recent years. Because of difficulties in getting and keeping a job, young people are getting more exposed to the risks of poverty, material deprivation, insecurity, lack of autonomy and social exclusion.
EXCEPT is a research project which aims to analyse these aspects of the youth situation in the labour market and the risks of social exclusion; and to assess related policy measures in the EU-28 and in Ukraine.
The central aim of the EXCEPT project is to develop effective and innovative policy initiatives to help young people in Europe overcome labour market insecurities and related risks.
EXCEPT- Social Exclusion of Youth in Europe: Cumulative Disadvantage, Coping Strategies, Effective Policies and Transfer
The recent crisis lead to ever increasing labor market insecurities among youth. EXCEPT, an interdisciplinary and internationally comparative project, strives to provide a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of youth labour market vulnerability to risks of social exclusion in Europe. A multidimensional dynamic perspective on both objective and subjective dimensions of the social exclusion of young people is to be adopted in order to identify the complex interrelationships and potential risks of cumulative disadvantages and possible compensatory mechanisms. Specifically, implications of labour market insecurities for youth’s risks of poverty and material deprivation, their subjective well-being and health status as well as their ability to reach independence from the parental home are to be investigated in a mixed-method approach:
- First, qualitative interviews are to be conducted with youth from nine selected European countries including Ukraine in order to reach an in-depth understanding of how disadvantaged youths perceive their social situation and try to cope with it in different economic, institutional and cultural environments.
- Second, quantitative methods are to be applied using EU-28 and national micro-data in order to identify the causal interrelationships and dynamic processes of youth’s social exclusion in different national contexts.
- Third, the diffusion and effectiveness of EU and national policies that address various issues of youth social exclusion are to be assessed in the EU-28 based on expert interviews and policy evaluation analyses.
EXCEPT also manages to incorporate voices of the youth themselves in this process in order to ensure involvement and addressing different stakeholder groups at all stages of the project and disseminate among as many groups as possible.
