Abstract
The language of austerity has been widely used to characterize policy-making in post-industrial nations since the financial crisis. Youth services in England are a noted example of the effects of austerity, having suffered rapid and severe cuts following a period of record investment prior to 2008. In this article, I argue that ‘austerity’ is an inadequate conceptual basis for critical analysis of policy-making since 2008, and that youth services are better understood as an exemplar case of the reforming effects of a ‘late neoliberal regime’. The late neoliberal regime describes a regulation of production through a finance capital imaginary, as distinct from the productive capital imaginary of the quasi-marketising neoliberal regime. I argue that late neoliberalism has effected the disassembly of quasi-marketised youth services and simultaneously the emergence of a new youth sector founded on norms of investment and return. I trace the reforming force of this regime through the productive relations of capital distributions, policy discourse, and organizational forms.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 226-242 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Education Policy |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 6 Aug 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Keywords
- neoliberalism
- youth services
- assemblage
- social investment
- austerity