Phil Cohen, Rethinking the Youth Question: Education, Labour and Cultural Studies. London: Macmillan, 1997, £16.99, xi+414 pp. (ISBN 0-333-63148-X).

Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel, Young People and Social Change: Individualisation and Risk in Late Modernity. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1997, £45.00 (£14.99 pbk), viii+141 pp. (ISBN 0-335-194-656 hbk, 0-335-19464-8 pbk).

H. Decker Scott and Barrick Van Winkle, Life in the Gang: Family, Friends and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, £45.00 (£15.95 pbk), xi+303 pp. (ISBN 0-521-56292-9 hbk, 0-521-56566-9 pbk).

John Hagan and Bill McCarthy, Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Homelessness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, £40.00 (£14.95 pbk), xv+299 pp. (ISBN 0-521-49743-4 hbk, 0-521-646-26X pbk).

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Kevin Rathunde and Samuel Whalen (with contribution by Maria Wong), Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, £14.95, x+307 pp. (ISBN 0-521-57463-3 pbk).

Historically there have been continuing concerns about the everyday lives of young people which have been voiced vociferously by the press, politicians and the public alike. These concerns have oscillated along the careöcontrol continuum and reflect both political and personal confusions about the daily lives of young people and how they as both individuals and a group, in turn make sense of the social, political and economic structures created for them by ‘adult’ society. These ‘concerns’ have not always been reflected by academic writing and research, which has struggled over whether ‘youth’ were worthy of special attention in the first place or whether such writing should be integrated into general research and teaching.