Post-industrial society, late modernity, globalization --- all these are terms that appeal to a changing reality in many of its manifestations; the labor market: the family; education; gender values; ways of thinking the world, space and oneself; and so forth. In such a world of many important transformations, the construction of youth and gender identities is, without any doubt, a gripping topic. The past generation's referents are not always a support; to the contrary, they are more often a hurdle that needs to be overcome in order to adapt to the new society. However, only through empirical research is it possible to find out to what degree these new processes are in play, as well as the specific forms adopted by these processes that are always located in space and time. This is exactly what the three works that the author comments on accomplish. The three of them concentrate on how young people in their secondary school years shape their subjectivity within a neoliberal context. These works stress the repercussions of a more and more competitive and achievement-centered educational system for young people. The books also consider that social relationships among youngsters are a very important aspect of school life and that they constitute a vital area of knowledge that needs to be included in any understanding of students' everyday school lives. These studies also seek to examine the processes that these young people go through in a context of "self-culture" (Rose, 1999) in order to form their subjectivities, and critically investigate how the social production of inequalities takes place through them. [The three books covered in this review essay are: Making Modern Lives: Subjectivity, Schooling and Social Change (J. McLeod and L. Yates, 2006); Lads and Ladettes in School, Gender and Fear of Failure (C. Jackson, 2006; and Masculinity Beyond the Metropolis (J. Kenway, A. Kraack & A. Hickey-Moody, 2006).]