Youth policy borrowing across language divides

Abstract

This paper relates most closely to David Raffe’s writing on ‘policy borrowing’ across countries and across time and his illumination for policy purposes of transition concepts such as ‘pathways’. The discussion makes the point that concepts can both illuminate empirical reality as well as distort it. The paper then moves on to issues of policy borrowing involving cross-national comparison drawing on the themes of historical, cultural and language difference, and the limitations this places on valid inference from statistical comparisons alone. The discussion embraces David’s discussion of the merits of ‘home internationals’ as a means of taking a step towards comparative understanding and the complications that language differences introduce. Examples will be taken from a late 1980s’ comparative study involving the transition to work in Germany and England. In line with Melvin Kohn’s principles for comparative research, the case is made for a combination of (quantitative) survey-based enquiry and (qualitative) case study to address the problems of comparative meaning and equivalence. The optimum solution is a ‘dialogue’ between variables and cases as Charles Ragin describes it. Conclusions will finally be drawn about David’s lasting contribution to the understanding and development of transition systems, processes, opportunities and rising inequalities.