Youth policy, dated back to 2003 when the first government measure were launched, has been critized of being overlapping, inconsistent, and inefficient, since the enactment of the Framework Law of Youth and relatedly the Strategic Plan for Youth Polic...
Youth policy, dated back to 2003 when the first government measure were launched, has been critized of being overlapping, inconsistent, and inefficient, since the enactment of the Framework Law of Youth and relatedly the Strategic Plan for Youth Policy. At the heart of the political controversy is the issue of youth age. Instead of taking an one-size-fits-all approach, this study strives to utilize the notion of “multiple-times” which prevails in the social science literature. Acknowledging different age programs and related arguments on their terms, this study consolidates all different age programs into a “contested” model of youth age, which is built on a 2x2 matrix of two axes, i.e., age vs. needs, and development vs non-development. The four types of youth age are produced, including conventional, unconventional, strategic and niche age of youth, which in turn are fleshed out in terms of basic concepts, core logic, development, policy flexibility. Finally a set of dynamic interactions between four age types were developed and discussed.