Historical and Cultural Context The concept of youth as a distinct social category is modern: industrialization, compulsory schooling, and expanded leisure created a prolonged transitional phase between childhood and adulthood. Throughout the twentieth century, young people repeatedly became the vanguard of cultural and political change—whether in the postwar beat movements, the 1968 protests, or more recent digital-era activism. "Frei" (free) in these contexts has meant different things: emancipation from rigid social norms, the freedom to express identity, and the political freedoms to contest authority. An exclusive Jung und Frei issue can trace these continuities and ruptures, showing how past movements inform present anxieties and hopes.