Current views on youth study and work. An epistemological journey

Abstract

This work proposes a journey through a series of investigations that were dedicated explore the senses that young people give to study and work. Although it could not be said that it constitutes a "state of the art" because surely many valuable analyzes have been excluded in relation to the subject, if it could be affirmed that it consists of a systematization of some productions. These have been selected from a temporal cut, since it covers authors who were dedicated to studying the subject from the 90s, geographically, because mainly it is about Latin American research and discipline, since the studies come especially from sociology, education and anthropology. However, perhaps the main feature shared by the research selected here is that they have the same epistemological perspective: the consideration of the youth category as a social construction. In this way, the studies gathered in this article think of the youth in plural, considering that "being young" is defined in relation to a multiplicity of people, groups, actors, collectives whose characteristics and properties are not exhausted in homogenizing descriptions about youth they highlight the multiplicity of contexts, actors and the ways in which youths are produced. The productions presented here invite to reflection, to open dialogue between those who are now producing knowledge in the region and intends to be a contribution to continue reflecting from the exchange and dialogue with others.