Youth and the future What will become of todays young people in Australia, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America? Will they be supportive of the world they live in? Or are they doomed to be criminal drop-outs? The authors investigate to which extent different and contradictory trends of social modernisation and economic progress determine the biographical development and social integration of young people in different countries and world regions. Thus, the authors look at the role young people themselves can play in the future; either as construc tive social actors or as a problematic - and partly excluded - group unable to face the challenges of a permanently changing world.

Dr. René Bendit, Dipl. Psych. U. Soz. M.A., International Research coooperation at the German Youth Institute, Munich, Germany, Lecturer at Free University Berlin, Germany, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany. Guest professor at the Latin American Department of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Buenos Aires, Argentina Marina Hahn-Bleibtreu, akad. gepr. MAFO; ALStv Nationale Jugendpolitik, Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Familie und JugendFederal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, Vienna, Austria