Anticipating service withdrawal: young people in spaces of neoliberalisation, austerity and economic crisis

Abstract

This paper considers some key impacts of public sector neoliberalisation and austerity measures for everyday geographies of childhood and youth in England. The paper develops three claims, with reference to qualitative research conducted at a youth group in 2007, 2009 and 2013. First, I outline a range of ways in which long-run processes of public sector neoliberalisation, and more abrupt cuts to public sector expenditure 'in the current climate' of austerity politics, have substantially transformed geographies of childhood and youth in many minority world contexts. However, I argue that extant research on these transformations has tended to reproduce some rather partial understandings of impacts of service withdrawal, which I critique via a reading of recent geographical work on anticipatory politics. Second, I evidence how political-economic contexts of neoliberalisation and austerity have constituted a particular atmosphere and sense of the future, tangibly affecting everyday relationships, spaces and the efficacy of service provision at the case study youth group. In particular, I emphasise the significance of anticipated futures, noting that the anticipation of funding cuts is having manifold everyday, lived consequences that are arguably more wide-ranging, intractable and troubling than the impacts of funding cuts themselves. Third, in particular, I argue that spaces of anticipated funding cuts and service withdrawal are frequently characterised by an intensification of anxieties about, and hopes for, young people's futures. I note that young people are diversely affected by, and engaged in, the circulation of these anxieties and hopesbut also recognise that young people's geographies go on, and sometimes offer hopeful ways on, 'in the current climate'.

A very personal crisis: Family fragilities and everyday conjunctures within lived experiences of austerity

“…Geographical contributions to literature on crisis point to the uneven spatialities of economic crises, the power differences and inequalities they expose, and the possibilities they unleash (Aalbers, ; Castree, ; Larner, ). More recent writings also identify how crises are multi‐scalar and involve impacts at the personal scale (e.g., Fields, ; García‐Lamarca & Kaika, ; Horton, ; Stenning, ; van Lanen, ; Wilkinson & Ortega‐Alcázar, ). This paper extends and enriches these literatures on how crises “play out” in everyday life, by conceptualising austerity and economic crisis as constituting a personal crisis ; lived in, through, and punctuating everyday life, manifesting as a life crisis, and shaping lifecourses, biographies and imaginaries of the future (Christophers, ; Fields et al., ; MacLeavy & Manley, ).…”

Framing, overflowing, and fuzzy logic in educational selection: Zurich as a case study

“…In times of harsh budget cuts for youth-related institutions, enforced accountability of schools, and growing support for the neoliberal restructuring of education (e.g. Hörschelmann, 2018;Horton, 2016;Kulz, 2013), it is important not only to point out that academics can put implicit activism into practice. We can actually become ourselves engaged in projects of "small acts, kind words and not too much fuss" that try to make a difference for young people of various abilities and aspirations (Horton and Kraftl, 2009).…”

The affective life of austerity: uncanny atmospheres and paranoid temporalities

“…Austerity's affective life in the public sector is an important example of this. Within such spaces, austerity is often made present through shared practices and feeling (Horton, 2016). This is not to negate the significance of individualised experience; in fact, attention to affective atmospheres enables exploration into how affects become collectively felt while always recognising that they are differentially attached to as they become registered in bodies (Bissell, 2016).…”

“…Paranoia emerges as a way of living within and also as an attempt to resolve the uncanny atmosphere. Turning back to Horton (2016), it is the imagined futures of cuts that can have felt consequences within the present. Paranoia is one playing-out of these futures, precisely due to the unknown that inhabits and defines this space-time of waiting.…”

“…Austerity stretches across multiple everyday sites, such as the food bank (Garthwaite, 2016), the job centre (Patrick, 2017), the Citizens Advice Bureau (Kirwan, 2016), the children's centre (Jupp, 2013). It is also made present through, and shapes, a multiplicity of relations, such as the familial (Hall, 2016;Jupp, 2017), indebted relations (Deville, 2015;Kirwan, 2016;Stanley, Deville, & Montgomerie, 2016), and relations with the present and future (Coleman, 2016;Horton, 2016). Importantly, this allows us to understand the ways in which austerity is unevenly experienced as particular groups are disproportionately affected.…”