Beyond NEET: precariousness, ideology and social justice - the 99%

This article addresses NEET (not in employment, education or training) as an ideological and discursive formation, lodging the discussion within its socio-economic context – one of increasing insecurity and precariousness. It argues that frequently quasi-political and ideological constructions of NEET can readily fold over into and articulate with discourses of the underclass and the broken society, as well as, paradoxically, social recession. Consequently, such arguments divert attention from processes of ‘othering’ and the secular changes facing society, as well as the spectre of a return to a form of nineteenth-century liberalism. Although the argument is located within the English context, it has a relevance to other Western societies in which similar tendencies can be discerned.