Youth agency and social context

This paper draws on ideas and research in youth studies in order to compare and contrast three approaches to the notion of social agency. The paper ch arts how youth studies commentators have generally relied upon either a 'de terministic' or a 'voluntaristic' conception of social action in explaining the life worlds of young people. It is argued that a 'contextual' understa nding of youth experience provides a better appreciation of how youth agenc y is constructed by and interfaces with social structures.