This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand that the global financial crisis means for young people – it has astounding depth and breadth and sets new agendas in the field of youth studies.” Johanna Wyn, Director, Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne “One of the strengths of the book – and the key to its undoubted value to non-academic readers – is France’s mastery of both the detail of social policy, and how policy interacts with lives actually lived by today’s young people.