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This chapter explores the multifaceted present-day social and cultural constructions of adolescence in a Nordic Atlantic society, the Faroe Islands. Based on young people’s perspectives and narratives, this chapter delves into the transition from youthhood to adulthood in the context of a small-scale, family-oriented society in shift. Drawing on sociological theoretical writing about “waiting” and “waithood” in relation to the (often temporally extended or delayed) transition from adolescence to full adulthood in a globalizing world, as well as social anthropological studies of future-making, my aim is to outline the new futural orientations of contemporary adolescence with focus on aspirations for work and family life. Young people, the chapter argues, are waiting and navigating in a society with multiple parallel temporalities: When to marry? When to get children? When to earn your own money and have your own home? These and many other questions define waithood in contemporary society, which is characterized by an increasingly precarious avenue toward promising futures resonating the socially accepted ways of performing adulthood. In the Faroe Islands, an island society with roughly 54,000 inhabitants, young people’s waiting is very often also a question of staying or leaving, that is, mobility and migration strategies. The waiting entails pace as a strategy for the future (Eisenstein, 2021). Adolescent islanders aim to “hit the right pace” in their future imaginaries. This chapter contributes to sociological discussions on the social construction of adolescence with focus on the meaning of time and temporalities. It relies on empirical material from extensive qualitative studies in the Faroe Islands.

This study aims at presenting the results of the research on the formative and permanent education in adolescence for health professionals of the Municipality of São Paulo. The analysis focuses on the so-called permanent education geared toward health professionals, and seeks to learn about the relation between biomedicine’s construction “of” adolescence and the problems related to teenagers’ health, deemed fundamental for the training of health professionals, from the study of themes related to teenagers’ health as they feature in the Permanent Education Municipal Plans (Planos Municipais de Educação Permanente – PLAMEP, covering the whole of the municipality). Thus the aim is to problematize the social construction, by biomedicine, of adolescence and of the adolescent body, grounded on the understanding of the issues raised in the PLAMEPs and defined as proper “to” adolescence and important for the permanent formation of health professionals. With a methodological approach of both quantitative and qualitative characters, the study holds as empirical reference the Municipal Health Schools of the Municipality of São Paulo and the six Regional Coordination Offices. The study relies, as research techniques, on documental survey (the PLAMEPs); on semi-structured interviews with managers, health representatives, and professionals to whom the activities of permanent education are aimed at; and on notes from the field book. The results now presented refer to the phase of PLAMEPs’ collection and analysis.

This research aimed to analyze the interactions of “pre-adolescent” students in the classroom through relationships sustained by structure, agency, and power exercises based on Anthony Giddens’ Theory of Structuring.¹ A qualitative research approach was used with the characteristic of a case study in a municipal public school in the city of Itabira (MG), Brazil. As procedures for recording the evidence, we used the application of a questionnaire, observation of the classroom and listening to students and teachers in a class of the sixth year of elementary school II during the 2017 school year. The results indicated that the vision of “pre-adolescence” marked by biological and psychological changes remains institutionalized for school professionals. The students demonstrated the need for the teacher to use his teaching authority to set limits in the classroom, however, this exercise of agency-power by the teacher must be negotiated and mediated by the participation of “pre-adolescents.” In view of this procedural context, “pre-adolescent” students cannot be held responsible for the instability of the interactive process in the classroom if the historical and social context through which these students pass is not considered in comparison to the institutionalized characteristics solidified through the process, time, and space by the school and/or some of its representatives (teachers).

The societal role of universities (u-pillar) is a long-standing discussion dividing the education researchers worldwide. Entering the sphere of the eminent Nordic education model (NEM), we aim at grasping its contemporaneity with regard to social value creation (SVC) and to the promotion of equality in education (EiE).

A theoretical review of literature revisits the foundations of the NEM in the light of the postmodern education challenges and the inherent governance practices of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the global eduscape.

One of the oldest HEIs in Denmark, Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College (NBCBC), is here instrumentalized as the target case research. The latter exhibited a sophisticated educational design, oriented toward digital apprenticeship and cumulative proximity to the students’ population of both national and international cohorts.

The chapter discusses how adolescents are moving beyond the dichotomy of biological and linguistic socialization, forming interpretive meanings at home through the reading of literature in their mother tongue, Bengali. Involving cultural relevance and non-vulnerability, the chapter conceptualizes “leisure activities” and “leisure pursuits” of reading practice of the IXth and Xth graders from both Bengali and English medium schools in Kolkata. The discussion from the theoretical construction mentions the further conceptualization of reading habits and language choice. This is where adolescents derive their agency. Adolescents from the Indian and especially from the Bengali perspective have a path of colonial discourse. From historical standpoint, the change in Bengali language and its grammar structure has influenced the acceptance of Bengali literature among adolescents in varying degrees through generations. Using mixed methods and content analysis, the chapter focuses on young teenagers’ narration on the way they maneuver curriculum and literature in their respective homes. Authors, for example, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Satyajit Ray, and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, form the Bengali identity construction in the present time. Rabindranath Tagore’s, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s works are always prevalent in the Bengali language syllabus. These are considered the foundational modern literary figures of pre-independent India. These are taught from a nationalist and gender discourse perspective. The adolescents in this chapter also read those at a minimum level at home and attempt to juggle the difficult vocabulary involved. The simple language of post-independent literature is much sought after by teenagers compared to pre-independent literature. Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Kakababu series, Satyajit Ray’s Feluda and Professor Shanku series, and Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s Chander Pahar stand out among the adolescents from both English and Bengali medium unanimously in this chapter.

Established in 1967 by the National Service (Amendment) Bill, National Service (NS) makes it compulsory for most young Singaporean males to enlist in the armed forces, typically for a two-year period. NS comes at a critical juncture in most Singaporean mens’ adolescence, disrupting their lives and isolating them in a foreign environment just as they are beginning to form a firm sense of identity. Recruits are expected to go through grueling training and endure harsh scoldings to prove their worth as both soldiers and men. Through an interview with 14 individuals who have served or are serving NS, it is found that the hegemonic masculinity present in NS relies on norms of strength, leadership, and suppression of emotion. However, its impact on enlistees is inconsistent, and dependent on one’s vocation, personal encounters, and expectations prior to enlisting.

Menstruation is a normal physiological process that occurs in adolescent girls, but it is often shrouded in taboo and stigma in Indian society. Socio-cultural norms and restrictions imposed by families and society can lead to ignorance and lack of access to accurate information and hygienic practices, which can negatively impact women’s physical and mental health throughout their lives. This study seeks to understand adolescent girls’ knowledge and awareness regarding menstruation, including their source of information, changes in their behavior and routine during their menstrual period, socio-cultural beliefs and norms they follow, and the impact of menstruation on their lives. This study was conducted in the state of Haryana, located in northwest India, in 2013. The sample consisted of 376 rural adolescent school-going girls. The study employed a mix-methods approach, using a self-administered structured close-ended questionnaire survey and semi-structured in-depth interviews as the data collection method. In order to enrich the study, additional data were collected through interviews with university-level girl students in 2016. And, further in 2022, during my PhD fieldwork, I got opportunity to discuss informally on the issue with the women in rural areas of the same region. The results found a lot of challenges for menstrual women which impact women’s physical and mental health. The enforcement of a lot of restrictions on the menstrual body makes them feel inferior and create hurdles in women’s growth and capabilities.