The Dualisation of Social Policies towards Young People in France: Between Familism and Activation

The mass expansion of higher education, the extension of the typical duration of studies and growing difficulties in entering the labour market have changed the transition from youth to adulthood. For these reasons some authors refer to youth as a ‘new age of life’ (Galland, 1993) or, in psychological terms, as ‘emerging adulthood’ (Arnett, 2000). In the literature on youth and the transition to adulthood, many typologies have been proposed in order to analyse the various possible institutional national arrangements that shape this transition (Breen and Buchmann, 2002; Van de Velde, 2008; Wallace and Bendit, 2009; Walther, 2006). They all rely on the seminal three-term typology of ‘welfare regimes’ developed by Esping-Andersen (Esping-Andersen, 1990) and further modified by Gallie and Paugam (Gallie and Paugam, 2000), who added a fourth type following the insights of Ferrera (Ferrera, 1996)