Social elasticities, heterogeneous actions, and uncertain reflexivities: guidelines for a research program about youth

Abstract

We will outline the bases for future research programs on youth reflexivities and itineraries. The proposal formulated is not structured drawing from a new diagnosis of contemporary modernity, but rather through a series of critical observations about the great theoretical impasses generated by the so-called problem of social order. Based on this critique, the article develops three major propositions. First: a proposal for an alternative conceptualization of society based on the irreducible elasticities of social life. Second: an analysis of the reasons for this elasticity based on the notions of texture and coercion, and the diversity of their articulations. Third: on the basis of the previous developments, a particular problematization of the complex relationship between action and reality is formulated, and above all of the experience and the effective awareness of limits. Based on these developments and the questions they raise at the level of reflexivities and individual and collective trajectories, the article proposes in conclusion a set of guidelines for future research programs mainly around reflexivities and youth itineraries.