Young People and the Disruption of Everything

Duggan, Shane B.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-30675-5_3

Shane B. Duggan²

387 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines how young people’s identities have been theorised within the changing economic and social conditions in Australia and internationally. It provides a timely reflection on how theories of ‘youth’ have taken up questions of mobility and digital transformation in the conditions of late modernity. It also examines conversations around the experiences and processes of youth transition, risk, individualisation, and ‘future-making’ within the context of the present Drawing on the example of the New South Wales State Government’s Youth Employment and Innovation Challenge, Duggan explores how shifts in young people’s conditions have been felt unevenly, resulting in the privileging of highly mobile biographies that take high aspirations and educational attainment as implicit.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 39.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 54.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
http://www.gettingdowntobusiness.com.au/, accessed 25 July 2019.
2.
https://launch.innovation.nsw.gov.au/youthemployment, accessed 25 July 2019.
3.
https://backtrack.org.au/, accessed 28 July 2019.
4.
https://www.batyr.com.au/being-herd/pathways/, accessed 28 July 2019.
5.
https://www.jobgetter.com/, accessed 28 July 2019.
6.
http://hactivate.io/, accessed 28 July 2019.
7.
For a useful summary of the ‘geek’ in cultural studies, see (McArthur 2009).

References

ABS. 2019. Labour Force, Cat. no. 6291.0.55.001, Table 13. Labour Force Status for 15-24-year Olds by Sex—Trend, Seasonally Adjusted and Original.
Google Scholar
Ames, Morgan G., and Daniela K. Rosner. 2014. From Drills to Laptops: Designing Modern Childhood Imaginaries. Information Communication and Society 17 (3): 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.873067.
Article Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun. 2013. The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition. London: Verso.
Google Scholar
Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. 2006. Emerging Adulthood in Europe: A Response to Bynner. Journal of Youth Studies 9 (1): 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260500523671.
Article Google Scholar
Arnot, Madeleine, and Jo-Anne Dillabough. 2000. Challenging Democracy: International Perspectives on Gender, Education and Citizenship. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210100200151.
Book Google Scholar
Bacchi, Carol. 2009. Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Google Scholar
Ball, Stephen J. 2004. Education for Sale! The Commodification of Everything. King´s Annual Education Lecture 2004, 1–29. http://sys.glotta.ntua.gr/Dialogos/Politics/CERU-0410-253-OWI.pdf.
Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: SAGE.
Google Scholar
———. 2013. Why ‘Class’ Is Too Soft a Category to Capture the Explosiveness of Social Inequality at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century. British Journal of Sociology 64 (1): 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12005.
Article Google Scholar
Bradley, Harriet, and Ranji Devadason. 2008. Fractured Transitions: Young Adults’ Pathways into Contemporary Labour Markets. Sociology 42 (1): 119–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507084828.
Article Google Scholar
Bynner, John M. 2005. Rethinking the Youth Phase of the Life-Course: The Case for Emerging Adulthood? Journal of Youth Studies 8 (4): 367–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260500431628.
Article Google Scholar
Clarke, Marilyn. 2018. Rethinking Graduate Employability: The Role of Capital, Individual Attributes and Context. Studies in Higher Education 43 (11): 1923–1937. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1294152.
Article Google Scholar
Cohen, Phil, and Patrick Ainley. 2000. In the Country of the Blind?: Youth Studies and Cultural Studies in Britain. Journal of Youth Studies 3 (1): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/136762600113059.
Article Google Scholar
Coleman, E. Gabriella. 2013. Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Côté, James E. 2014a. Towards a New Political Economy of Youth. Journal of Youth Studies 17 (4): 527–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.836592.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2014b. Youth Studies: Fundamental Issues and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Book Google Scholar
Côté, James E., and John M. Bynner. 2008. Changes in the Transition to Adulthood in the UK and Canada: The Role of Structure and Agency in Emerging Adulthood. Journal of Youth Studies 11 (3): 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260801946464.
Article Google Scholar
Cramer, Judd, and Alan B. Krueger. 2016. Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber. American Economic Review 106 (5): 177–182.
Article Google Scholar
Curran, Dean. 2013. Risk Society and the Distribution of Bads: Theorizing Class in the Risk Society. British Journal of Sociology 64 (1): 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12004.
Article Google Scholar
Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth. 2017. The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Davies, Sarah R. 2018. Characterizing Hacking: Mundane Engagement in US Hacker and Makerspaces∗. Science Technology and Human Values 43 (2): 171–197. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917703464.
Article Google Scholar
Duffy, Brooke Erin. 2017. (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Duggan, Shane. 2016. Understanding Temporality and Future Orientation for Young Women in the Senior Year. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 38 (6): 795–806.
Google Scholar
———. 2019. Examining Digital Disruption as Problem and Purpose in Australian Education Policy. The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives 18 (1): 111–127. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/IEJ.
Google Scholar
Ecclestone, Kathryn, and Daniel Goodley. 2016. Political and Educational Springboard or Straitjacket? Theorising Post/Human Subjects in an Age of Vulnerability. Discourse 37 (2): 175–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2014.927112.
Article Google Scholar
Farrugia, David. 2017. Youthfulness and Immaterial Labour in the New Economy. The Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117731657.
Article Google Scholar
Furlong, Andy, and Fred Cartmel. 2007. Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.
Google Scholar
Furlong, Andy, John Goodwin, Henrietta O’Connor, Sarah Hadfield, Stuart Hall, Kevin Lowden, and Réka Plugor. 2017. Young People in the Labour Market: Past, Present, Future. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Furlong, Andy, Dan Woodman, and Johanna Wyn. 2011. Changing Times, Changing Perspectives: Reconciling ‘Transition’ and ‘Cultural’ Perspectives on Youth and Young Adulthood. Journal of Sociology 47 (4): 355–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783311420787.
Article Google Scholar
González, Ángel. 2016. Amazon on Pace to Boast Fortune 500’s Second-Largest Workforce. The Seattle Times, February 20, 2016. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-on-pace-to-boast-fortune-500s-second-largest-workforce/.
James, David, Diane Reay, Gill Crozier, Phoebe Beedell, Sumi Hollingworth, Fiona Jamieson, and Katya Williams. 2010. Neoliberal Policy and the Meaning of Counterintuitive Middle-Class School Choices. Current Sociology 58 (4): 623–641. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392110368003.
Article Google Scholar
Jordan, Tim. 2017. A Genealogy of Hacking. Convergence 23 (5): 528–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856516640710.
Article Google Scholar
Keating, Jack, Glenn C. Savage, and John Polesel. 2013. Letting Schools off the Hook? Exploring the Role of Australian Secondary Schools in the COAG Year 12 Attainment Agenda. Journal of Education Policy 28 (2): 268–286. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2012.730628.
Article Google Scholar
Kelly, Peter. 2006. The Entrepreneurial Self and ‘Youth at-Risk’: Exploring the Horizons of Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Journal of Youth Studies 9 (1): 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260500523606.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2013. The Self as Enterprise: Foucault and the Spirit of 21st Century Capitalism. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
———. 2015. Growing up after the GFC: Responsibilisation and Mortgaged Futures. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 38 (1): 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1104852.
Article Google Scholar
Lesko, Nancy. 2001. Act Your Age!: A Cultural Construction of Adolescence. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Google Scholar
McArthur, J.A. 2009. Digital Subculture. Journal of Communication Inquiry 33 (1): 58–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859908325676.
Article Google Scholar
McDowell, Linda, Esther Rootham, and Abby Hardgrove. 2014. Politics, Anti-Politics, Quiescence and Radical Unpolitics: Young Men’s Political Participation in an ‘Ordinary’ English Town. Journal of Youth Studies 17 (1): 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.825709.
Article Google Scholar
Miller, Peter, and Nikolas Rose. 2008. Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social and Personal Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar
Morrison, Andrew. 2008. ‘I Can’t Do Any More Education’: Class, Individualisation and Educational Decision-Making. Journal of Vocational Education and Training 60 (4): 349–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820802591749.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2010. ‘I Want an Education’: Two Case Studies of Workingclass Ambition and Ambivalence in Further and Higher Education. Research in Post-Compulsory Education 15 (1): 67. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596740903565376.
Article Google Scholar
NSW Department of Industry. 2019. Youth Employment Innovation Challenge. Accessed October 10, 2019. https://launch.innovation.nsw.gov.au/youthemployment.
Reay, Diane, Jacqueline Davies, Miriam E. David, and Stephen J. Ball. 2001. Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, ‘Race’ and the Higher Education Choice Process. Sociology 35 (4): 855–874. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038501035004004.
Article Google Scholar
Reuters. 2018. Mnuchin: Illicit Activity Is Top Concern on Crypto Currencies. Reuters, January 25, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/davos-meeting-mnuchin-crypto/mnuchin-illicit-activity-is-top-concern-on-crypto-currencies-idUSL4N1PK3YR.
Roberts, Steven. 2010. Misrepresenting ‘Choice Biographies’?: A Reply to Woodman. Journal of Youth Studies 13 (1): 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260903233720.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2012. One Step Forward, One Step Beck: A Contribution to the Ongoing Conceptual Debate in Youth Studies. Journal of Youth Studies 15 (3): 389–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.663896.
Article Google Scholar
Rosenblat, Alex. 2018. Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Google Scholar
Ross, Andrew. 2013. In Search of the Lost Paycheck. In Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory, ed. Trebor Scholz, 28–66. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Sadler, Denham. 2018. Youth Startup Program De-Funded. InnovationAus.Com. https://www.innovationaus.com/2018/11/Youth-startup-program-de-funded.
Scholz, Trebor. 2013. Digital Labor: The Internet as Playground and Factory. Edited by Trebor Scholz. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.816888.
Article Google Scholar
Segran, Elizabeth. 2017. Two Ex-Googlers Want to Make Bodegas and Mom-and-Pop Corner Stores Obsolete. Fast Company, September 13, 2017. https://www.fastcompany.com/40466047/two-ex-googlers-want-to-make-bodegas-and-mom-and-pop-corner-stores-obsolete.
Sellar, Sam, Trevor Gale, and Stephen Parker. 2011. Appreciating Aspirations in Australian Higher Education. Cambridge Journal of Education 41 (1): 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2010.549457.
Article Google Scholar
Skibell, Reid. 2002. The Myth of the Computer Hacker. Information, Communication & Society 5 (3): 457–459. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180210159292.
Article Google Scholar
Smith, David, Katherine LaVelle, Mary Lyons, and Yaarit Silverstone. 2016. The Gig Experience: Insights from the Accenture Strategy 2016 U.S. College Graduate Employment Study.
Google Scholar
Snee, Helene, and Fiona Devine. 2014. Taking the Next Step: Class, Resources and Educational Choice across the Generations. Journal of Youth Studies 17 (8): 998–1013. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.881987.
Article Google Scholar
Standing, Guy. 2016. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. 2nd ed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Google Scholar
Sukarieh, Mayssoun, and Stuart Tannock. 2015. Youth Rising? The Politics of Youth in the Global Economy. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Talburt, Susan, and Nancy Lesko. 2012. An Introduction to Seven Technologies of Youth Studies. In Keywords in Youth Studies Tracing Affects, Movements, Knowledges, ed. Susan Talburt and Nancy Lesko, 1–10. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Thompson, Clive. 2005. Meet the Life Hackers. The New York Times Magazine, October 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/meet-the-life-hackers.html.
Tufecki, Zeynep. 2017. Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Google Scholar
Valentine, Gill. 2003. Boundary Crossings: Transitions from Childhood to Adulthood. Children’s Geographies 1 (1): 37–52.
Article Google Scholar
Wachsmuth, David, and Alexander Weisler. 2017. Airbnb and the Rent Gap: Gentrification Through the Sharing Economy. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 50 (6): 1147–1170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18778038.
Article Google Scholar
Walkerdine, Valerie. 2011. Neoliberalism, Working-Class Subjects and Higher Education. Contemporary Social Science 6 (2): 255–271. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2011.580621.
Article Google Scholar
Walther, Andreas, Annegret Warth, Mirjana Ule, and Manuela du Bois-Reymond. 2015. ‘Me, My Education and I’: Constellations of Decision-Making in Young People’s Educational Trajectories. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 8 (3): 349–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2014.987850.
Article Google Scholar
Wark, McKenzie. 2004. A Hacker Manifesto. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar
———. 2015. Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene. New York: Verso.
Google Scholar
———. 2016. The Sublime Language of My Century. Public Seminar. http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/05/the-sublime-language-of-my-century/.
———. 2017. What If This Is Not Capitalism Any More, but Something Worse? NPS Plenary Lecture, APSA 2015, Philadelphia, PA. New Political Science 39 (1): 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393148.2017.1278846.
Article Google Scholar
Williamson, Ben. 2016. Political Computational Thinking: Policy Networks, Digital Governance and ‘Learning to Code’. Critical Policy Studies 10 (1): 39–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2015.1052003.
Article Google Scholar
Woodman, Dan. 2009. The Mysterious Case of the Pervasive Choice Biography: Ulrich Beck, Structure/Agency, and the Middling State of Theory in the Sociology of Youth. Journal of Youth Studies 12 (3): 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260902807227.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2010. Class, Individualisation and Tracing Processes of Inequality in a Changing World: A Reply to Steven Roberts. Journal of Youth Studies 13 (6): 737–746. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2010.506533.
Article Google Scholar
Woodman, Dan, and Johanna Wyn. 2015. Class, Gender and Generation Matter: Using the Concept of Social Generation to Study Inequality and Social Change. Journal of Youth Studies 18 (10): 1402–1410. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2015.1048206.
Article Google Scholar
Wyn, Johanna, and Dan Woodman. 2006. Generation, Youth and Social Change in Australia. Journal of Youth Studies 9 (5): 495–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260600805713.
Article Google Scholar
———. 2007. Researching Youth in a Context of Social Change: A Reply to Roberts. Journal of Youth Studies 10 (3): 373–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260701342624.
Article Google Scholar
Zipin, Lew, Sam Sellar, Marie Brennan, and Trevor Gale. 2015. Educating for Futures in Marginalized Regions: A Sociological Framework for Rethinking and Researching Aspirations. Educational Philosophy and Theory 47 (3): 227–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2013.839376.
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Shane B. Duggan

Authors

Shane B. Duggan
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shane B. Duggan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Duggan, S.B. (2019). Young People and the Disruption of Everything. In: Education Policy, Digital Disruption and the Future of Work. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30675-5_3

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30675-5_3
Published: 10 November 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30674-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30675-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics