Example 1

Introduction
1.1
The economic recessions and restructuring that have taken place in the European and global labour markets since the 1970s, brought about job losses, poverty and social exclusion (Brown and Crompton 1994). As youth unemployment dramatically increased in some[1] north-western European countries, such as UK, France, Belgium, Finland, and from the 1980s onwards, in southern Europe (see Table 1), youth transitions into the labour market became more difficult, complex and prolonged than in the past.

1.2
There have been a variety and contrasting explanations on the causes of high youth unemployment rates in the European context (for example, in the case of UK, Rees and Atkinson 1982; Lynch 1984; Jackson 1985; Hart 1988; Antal 1990; Deakin 1995; Orszag and Snower 1997). Two broad types of explanation can be identified: those based on the characteristics and attitudes of young people (job search explanations[2]; blame the victim approach[3]; voluntary unemployment approach[4]); and those that locate the problem in the changing socio-economic context from the 1970s onwards, as a reflection of economic recession and restructuring that have been taking place in Europe and internationally during the last three decades.