Hopeless Youth! is a collection of studies exploring what it means to be young today. It is the youth with the greatest hunger of experiences and cosmopolitan referents. Youngsters are hopeless because they do not expect help from anybody and they demonstrate scepticism about the future. As shown, contemporary youth is characterised by interim responses and situational thinking, developing particular skills that do not exist in previous generations. The kaleidoscope of youth cultures is mirrored by topics such as punks, hiphoppers, hikers, chavs, migrant youth, children's art, to name a few. Geographically, the different chapters cover a number of European countries, from Russia to the UK.

Praise

Hopeless Youth! is a fascinating and diverse collection of essays about what some have refereed to as counter-cultural or sub-cultural interests. Taken as a whole however, this collection of work makes abundantly clear that the writing, thinking and doing involved in punk and hip hop culture, flâneurism, dubstep and techno music scenes, skateboarding, dumpster diving and hitchhiking, for example, are central to culture on a more-than-marginal level. This collection of essays is bound to be a staple reference for anyone working with groups and individuals defining places their own terms.
Bradley L. Garrett, University of Oxford.

This volume is a bold and expressive statement. The exclamation mark in the title sums it up for me. Make what you will of this collection – that seems to be the point. It is a timely addition to a type of scholarship which is proactive, progressive and provocative. With a diverse and international range of contributors, this visually stunning book is playful yet no less politically challenging to the dogmas of intellectual lethargy. And in harboring an array of sharp ideas, unconventional themes, creative forms of dissemination and imaginative collaborations, this collection will have its readers repeatedly thumbing through its pages.
Patrick Laviolette, Tallinn University

The neoliberalisation of aspects of social life has laid a precarious and uncertain path for young people as they become increasingly more ‘liberated’ to cultivate their own identities. Across Western societies, many immerse themselves in virtual worlds, musical tastes and engage in risky behaviors as a ‘live for today’ philosophy takes power over youth identity politics. In the background, however, inequality and unemployment increase while resistance movements against problematic politics gathers momentum. There has never been a more interesting time to examine the concept of ‘youth’ and elaborate on its future. This eclectic mix of commentators who have contributed chapters in Hopeless Youth whose expertise include subculture, postmodernity, and identity politics make this collection an important milestone in the discussion of the status quo and future of the most important generation to come.
Daniel Briggs, European University of Madrid

This book is a refreshing read for anyone interested in the broad field of youth. Among the topics and groups covered in the volume, every reader can find several chapters relevant to his or her studies. The message of the book can be defined through the term ‘glocalisation’, where practices of youth in different countries are incredibly similar to each other, yet having developed their own unique national accents.
Aimar Ventsel, Social Anthropology