Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the concept of superdiversity and describes how a superdiversity lens challenges traditional concepts and approaches in studying youth in multicultural societies. It describes how globalization processes necessitate a more complex perspective on acculturation processes that go beyond bi-dimensional frameworks, and discusses the need to disentangle unique from universal processes of immigrant youth adaptation and provide theoretical and methodological considerations of cross-comparative research that can help in this disentangling. The book highlights the dynamic nature of acculturation processes by introducing the concepts of acculturative timing, tempo, pace, and synchrony as a means to study the interplay of acculturation and development. It discusses a program of research that uses experience-based sampling methods to examine how variations in daily life experiences contribute to minority youth development.