Young People and Uncertain Futures?

Drawing on Foucault's 'genealogical ethos' and his work on power/knowledge/subjects, this book analyses the ways in which neo-liberal education apparatuses in Australia and other high income economies frame the problem of young people and uncertain futures.

James Goring is Lecturer in Education in the School of Education at Deakin University. His research interests lie at the intersection of the critical sociologies of education and youth studies. He seeks to better understand the relationships between young people's health and well-being, their education, training, and employment pathways, and planetary crisis. Peter Kelly is Professor of Education in the School of Education at Deakin University. His research focuses on young people's education, employment, and well-being in times of crisis at the convergence of the sixth mass extinction and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. His books include Young People and Thinking Technologies of/for the Anthropocene (2022), COVID-19 and the (Broken) Promise of Education for Sustainable Development: A Case Study from Post-Colonial Pakistan (2023), Informal Workers and a Political Economy of Life Long Learning: Provocations from the Margins of Global Capitalism (2024), and On the Problem of Foundation Skills and the Futures of Work (2025).

Prologue: Futures Uncertain? 1. A Genealogical Ethos 2. The Emergence of a Neo-Liberal Education Apparatus 3. Being and Becoming an Enterprising Young Person 4. Being and Becoming an Aspirational Young Person 5. On the Problem of Young People and the Future of Work 6. On the Problem of Young People and Sustainable Futures Epilogue: Speculative Fabulations?