CLOSE-UP – Studies

Invisible Youth: NEET Young People and the Shadow of Social Structures

Published:
2026-06-30
Authors
View
Keywords
License

Copyright (c) 2026 CROSS-SECTIONS Social Science Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A CC BY licence alkalmazása előtt megjelent cikkek esetében (2020 előtt) továbbra is a CC BY-NC-ND licence az érvényes.

How To Cite
Selected Style: APA
Papp, K. M., & Mohácsi, M. (2026). Invisible Youth: NEET Young People and the Shadow of Social Structures. CROSS-SECTIONS Social Science Journal, 15(1), 125–142. https://doi.org/10.18392/metsz/2026/1/7
Abstract

This study examines the position of NEET youth (young people aged 15–29 who are not in 
education, employment, or training) within social structures, focusing on the relationships 
between structural inequalities, intergenerational capital transfer, and political representation. The study argues that NEET youth should not be viewed solely as a statistical or labour market challenge but can increasingly be understood as a socially and politically invisible group characterised by social exclusion, limited opportunities for interest representation, andpolitical marginalisation. The theoretical framework draws on Bourdieu’s theory of capital, the inequality theories of Piketty and Atkinson, and Goldthorpe’s model of social mobility, complemented by the concept of the precariat.