Introduction for Special Section of Sociological Research Online: The Marginalised Mainstream: Making Sense of the ‘Missing Middle’ of Youth Studies

Research in the field of youth studies has produced many important insights and has been influential in critiquing, shaping, and changing our understandings of, and social policies in respect of, young people's lives. The social scientific focus has, rightly so, oftentimes been on those young people more obviously situated on the margins of society and possibly at risk of becoming excluded or disconnected from it. There has been some occasional and direct research interest in the lives of more advantaged young people who follow more successful youth transitions through extended education. Often, however, it is taken for granted that those on 'slow track transitions' are 'successful' - and un-problematic in social policy terms. Regardless, in adopting this dualism successful versus unsuccessful transitions, slow-track versus fast track trajectories, advantaged versus disadvantaged youth research is in danger of ignoring the experiences of young people who fall somewhere in-between.