Social Generation, Class and Experiences of Youth Transition in Indonesia

This article explains the transition process of contemporary Indonesian generation in neoliberal era. I use social generation, concept of class and youth transition perspective to analyse the impact of neoliberal domination on the meaning construction of transition among young people from different class. Public higher education was commoditized and the majority of companies started practising the flexibility concept in the job markets. For lower class youth, they had to bury their dream to continue to higher education, had to enter badly paid work and supported their parents. In contrast, young people from middle class enjoyed the privilege to continue to higher education through support of family, they did not have to work earlier or supported their parents. However, in the stage of transition to work, young people from both classes had to deal with the logic of flexibility in the job markets such as training, internship, outsourcing and low rate of salary. Further, they also had to postpone transition to marriage and still living with parents. This article concludes that transition process of contemporary Indonesian youth generation in the neoliberal era is insecure and uncertain.