Presentation at the conference:

The Social Sciences Today: Dilemmas and Projections beyond the Crisis

(Lesvos, Greece 06-09.06.2019)

 

‘Young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the Mditerranean EU South: a study of the phenomenon for the recent crisis’

 

Effie EMMANOUIL, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean

Michalis POULIMAS, Post-Doctoral researcher, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean

Ioannis PAPAGEORGIOU, Researcher, University of the Aegean

Stelios GIALIS, Assistant Professor in Economic and Labor Geography, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean

 

Abstract:

Changes in contemporary economy, production and society along with the recent Great Recession reflect the new hard milieu in which young people work and live. Young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) appear to be even more vulnerable, as they face high adversity in terms of entering or retaining new jobs. The concept of NEETs offers a credible analytical tool that is able to capture youth’s “absence” from the socio-productive structures and youth’s inactivity as well.

The paper offers a theoretically informed empirical research on NEETs and their magnitude within the Mediterranean EU South, focusing on NUTS-II level regions before and after the 2008/2009 crisis. Starting from a brief literature review that reveals the multiple dimensions and perspectives of the young NEETs phenomenon in the study areas; it then moves to an empirical account of their uneven spatial dispersion. For the latter, the location quotient (LQ) index is calculated in order to record the higher NEETs concentrations across regions of Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain. Moreover, a comparison of the NEETs LQ with youth unemployment LQ in order to examine their relation and also the magnitude of “inactivity” vis-a’-vis educational participation, is performed. The analysis relies on secondary data on NEETs, youth unemployment and GDP extracted from Eurostat.

The study concludes by revealing the harsh impact of the economic crisis upon NEETs, and offers some remarks on the relation between young people’s “activity” and resilient economic sectors (e.g. tourism) within the study regions. Based on the above concluding remarks the paper offers a basic framework for future impact studies that evaluate youth employment policies in the Mediterranean EU South.

The present study is being conducted in the framework of the research project “A Place for Youth in Mediterranean EEA: Social and Sharing Economy for NEETs” (YOUTShare) which is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment.

 

Presentation:

Young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the Mediterranean EU South