Reconfiguring Youth Transitions: Digital Spaces, Social Connections and the Role of Social Pedagogy
Abstract
Youth transitions, once understood as linear progressions from education to work, independence and family life, are increasingly fragmented, prolonged and uncertain. Globalisation, individualisation, precarious labour markets and digitalisation have transformed the conditions of growing up, embedding transitions within hybrid social worlds in which online and offline experiences are deeply entangled. Digital spaces are not neutral tools but socio-technical environments that mediate identity, belonging and opportunity, while introducing new risks and inequalities. This theoretical article reconceptualises youth transitions through the combined lens of digital sociality and social pedagogy. It traces the shift from structured pathways to non-linear trajectories that may, in some contexts, take rhizomatic forms. It also examines the embodied, affective and networked nature of digital participation and considers how social pedagogy’s relational, participatory and justice-oriented ethos can address the complexities of hybrid transitions. The proposed Multidimensional Rhizomatic Transitions Framework integrates four analytically distinct but dynamically connected dimensions: (1) rhizomatic pathways, (2) hybrid spatiality and sociomaterial entanglement, (3) relational-ethical orientation and (4) critical digital agency, including digi-grasping. Rather than simply placing these dimensions alongside one another, the framework explains how structural and platform conditions shape lived opportunities and constraints, how relational support influences their interpretation, and how digital agency may redirect subsequent pathways. The framework offers conceptual propositions for research, practice and policy. By situating social pedagogy within digitally mediated life courses, the article offers a future-facing approach to fostering agency, equity and belonging in contemporary youth transitions.
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