The article presents a rationale for the centrality of the methodological framework of life world research as the most crucial reference point for empirical studies of students. It considers the unity in the study of objective and subjective, individual, group, social consciousness and behaviour as social action, diverse types and forms of activity, and the conditions for their implementation. A comprehensive and multifaceted understanding of youth, achieved through a pluralistic approach to methodology and the unification of the life world construct, enables a novel comprehension of not only the heterogeneous and multifaceted student community, but also the ways in which the state and society can facilitate the socialisation of the younger generation, its self-realisation within the education system, its integration into the environment of daily life activities, professional employment and leisure. It provides an overview and description of the key problematic aspects revealed in the articles of the issue.