A vulnerable generation? Youth agency facing work precariousness = ¿Una generación vulnerable? La agencia juvenil frente a la precariedad laboral

Agency and vulnerability are not alternative terms; rather, their encounter designates a distinctive characteristic of agency: that of the «weaker» struggling between constraints and the discovery of new opportunities. After theoretical discussion of the relation between agency and vulnerability, and of the transformations of subjectivation processes, this article focuses on the specific situation of vulnerability in the job market experienced by the current generation of young people. It analyses the limits and potentials of young people’s agency as a duty in regard to work precariousness with the help of research conducted in Italy from 2013 to 2017. The aim is to highlight how agency and vulnerability —more than being intrinsic characteristic of the individual— are related to temporary positions, as an intersection of categorizations and resources, in relational and situated conditions.