Navigating Misrecognition and Risk: A Recognition-Based Analysis of Educationally Disadvantaged Young Men’s Career Transitions

Internationally, educationally disadvantaged young men navigate adulthood amid fragmented recognition, precarious labour, and social risk. This study examines how this group in Hong Kong negotiates school-to-work transitions through recognition theory and risk society perspectives. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 participants, the study analyses how misrecognition across school, family, workplace, and peer contexts shapes identities, aspirations, and coping strategies. Five themes were identified: fragmented recognition, risk-embedded pathways, recognition-seeking strategies, managing misrecognition and risk, and re-imagining futures within structural constraints. Findings show that drifting, precarious employment, and high-risk opportunities are adaptive responses to recognition deficits and limited pathways, rather than individual failure. Participants sought recognition through skilled manual identities, peer validation, and small achievements, demonstrating resilience. The study advances recognition-based understandings of youth transitions and underscores the need for coordinated support systems that strengthen recognition of young men’s capabilities and legitimate non-academic pathways while reducing structural precarity.