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The publications are actually in the welfare research category. This broad field ofresearch focuses on many different aspects of the living conditions faced by individualsand groups (work, income, housing, education, health etc.), closely associated withwelfare policies aimed at ensuring quality of life and good living conditions for allcitizens. Key research topics are lack of welfare based on structural factors such as age,gender, education, income etc., and accumulations of welfare disadvantages in certainpopulation groups, as well as the lack of vital necessities which are the cause of thissituation. The research generally aims to identify what measures and resources need tobe aimed at these groups to reduce their lack of welfare (Vogel, 2003).The research is closely linked to the regular survey of population living conditionscarried out in many countries (Hagerty et al., 2002; Vogel, 2003). Driver’s licenceholding and car-ownership/access are often included in these surveys. This is reflectedin the large number of hits in the full-text search. However, few publications areactually based on more detailed investigations of the link between driver’s licenceholding and welfare among young people, reflecting that transportation do notconstitute a key theme within the welfare research tradition.The studies that will be reviewed examine more closely the link between young peoplewho do not hold a driver’s licence or have access to a car and lack of welfare in otherrespects .The research is based on the perspective that a driver’s licence is a resourcewhich facilitates young people’s transition to adulthood. For the purpose of facilitatingfurther reading, a brief summary of this youth welfare approach can be found below.3.3.1 The concept of youth transitionsThe term transition has for long been interwoven with the concept of youth in welfareresearch, primarily defined as a transitional stage of life between childhood andadulthood. Youth transition has conventionally been conceptualised as a processinvolving four sequential ‘thresholds’: completing education, entry into employment,leaving home and, forming a couple and an own family (Bagnall, 2005).Over the last couple of decades it has been suggested that young people’s transitions toadulthood have become longer and more complex (Vogel, 2002). Routes betweeneducation and work, which were earlier viewed as linear and predictable, have beenreplaced by a set of movements that are less predictable and involve frequent breaks,backtracking and the mix of social statuses (Furlong et al., 2006). However researchinto youth welfare points out that what we actually see is an increasing divide within theyouth population between those following more linear routes to adulthood, even thoughthe transition phase now is longer compared with earlier generations’, and thosefollowing non-linear routes. Non-linear transitions tend to be more common amongthose young people from less advantaged socioeconomic positions. Linear transitionstend to be most common among those with high level of education and least commonamong those with low qualifications (Furlong et al., 2003).The focus of the reviewed research is on the non-linear transitions of vulnerable groupsof young people. Driver’s licence holding is investigated as part of a key threshold fortransition; entry into employment.3.4 Driver licensing and transition to workPublications found that deal with driver licensing and transition to work are mostlybased on case studies. The age of the young people varies both within and acrossstudies. Even though surveys and interviews are common methods, design and analysis34 VTI rapport 824A