In the areas of institutionalized education – be it schools, universities or vocational training – concepts of human capital are increasingly applied in most countries of the world. This is reflected in research projects such as PISA, to name only the most prominent one. Some of these studies focus very much on pupils’ competences as outcomes of their school achievement, others try to assess competences necessary for participation in modern societies including the labour market requirements.

The papers of the planned symposium will explore concepts and approaches which exceed a mere human capital perspective of the relation of children, youth and education, focussing on the development of capabilities in the sense of Armatya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Their socio-philosophical Capabilities Approach provides conceptualizations of agency and social well-being which shed light on the processes of socialization by evaluating the options provided for the individual by educational institutions. Furthermore, it includes inter-individual differences in people‘s abilities to convert resources and services into states, actions and affiliations they have reason to value. In this perspective the notion of ‘success’ includes the well-being of children and youths and their relative freedom of choice. School achievement is, thus, embedded into a larger framework of individual goals.

This symposium-session is the second part of a larger symposium. By using the Capabilities Approach as an overarching framework the papers of this session examine the relationships and interplays between those capabilities and competences that social institutions involved in the socialization process of adolescents and young adults, especially teacher training, vocational training and agencies for employment promotion, reckon as important and those the young people themselves prefer. With presenting studies on this issue from Denmark, Germany and Russia, the session gives a broad overview of the conditions for social justice in education and social systems of Europe. Coming from education science and sociology, they follow scientific perspectives of social and socialization research as well as rather practical and political questions with regard to a social change of a society’s institutions. Using different research methods, quantitative and qualitative ones, they connect micro and macro levels of society to find out new possibilities for constructing social institutions that allow for more equality and social justice for young people.