Youth Development in Identity Societies

This book explores the causes and consequences of the contradictions in young people’s lives stemming from the affluence–purpose paradox : a lack of purpose-in-life among many of those living in the most affluent societies in human history. This paradox is endemic to identity societies where people experience a choice-contingent life course, and is examined using an interdisciplinary approach—largely with an integration of developmental psychology and sociology, but also using historical, anthro