The authors in this volume critically interrogate the links between education and employment; normative understandings about youth and adulthood; as well as personal, national and regional level aspirations for economic ‘success’. Comparative chapters on Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Nepal, Singapore and Taiwan illustrate how young people are having to forge innovative pathways into the future, while being confronted with ever increasing insecurities. Offering important insights into the kinds of education and employment landscapes that Asian youth are navigating, reworking or trying to avoid, this collection is an essential reference for students and scholars of Asian Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Development Studies, Human Geography and Youth Studies.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Children’s Geographies.
Suzanne Naafs is a Lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Tracey Skelton is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore, and Visiting Professor at Loughborough University, UK.