Description: This study addresses a timely and crucial topic, the socialization of today's youth, by asking such precise questions as--What are the young socialized for? Which skills, modes of thinking or action are required of them and what are their developmental values? All too often, socialization tends to be viewed within the confines of a particular geographical or cultural situation. The multi-national contributors bring an international perspective to the problem of socialization in work and adult life by emphasizing common issues facing youth around the world.
Brief description: Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont is professor of psychology and education at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She studied in Geneva with Jean Piaget and prepared a degree in vocational guidance at the University of Lausanne and a Master in child development at the University of London. Her doctoral dissertation in social psychology in Geneva was concerned with a Vygotskian reading of the role of social interactions in cognitive development. She has been involved in professional training for child care, primary and secondary education, and youth work. Her research interests concern a socio-cultural approach of thinking, learning and vocational training as contextualized activities sustained or hindered by institutional settings that offer or fail to offer thinking spaces and opportunities for development in periods of profound social and technological changes. She actively participated in launching DORE, an action of the Swiss National Science Foundation supporting practical research in the areas of social work, health, education, music and theatre, fine arts, applied psychology and applied linguistics.