Representing a Fading Welfare System that Is Failing Young People in ‘NEET’ Situations: a WPR Analysis of Swedish Youth Policies

Abstract

The situation of young people who are neither in employment, education nor training (referred to in political, scientific and public discourses as ‘NEETs’) has received widespread attention during the last decade. However, while policy responses to young people’s work- and school-related marginalisation have been analysed by international scholars in a variety of contexts, to the best of our knowledge, no study to date has scrutinised problem representations of ‘NEET’ young people in youth policies in Sweden. To bridge the current knowledge gap and uncover taken-for-granted assumptions about the otherwise largely unchallenged Nordic welfare model, the aim of this research was to explore how the ‘problem’ of ‘NEET’ young people is represented in Swedish policies and policy proposals. To facilitate this, a discursive approach to policy analysis was adopted, following Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) methodology. By focusing on the solutions that have been proposed to reduce the size of the ‘NEET’ group in two selected policies, four problem representations were developed. These connect the ‘NEET’ problem in Sweden, at the general level, to the ‘vulnerability’ of young people on the margins of education and employment (especially certain sub-groups) and, more specifically, to the failure of a fading welfare system to provide services and support for these ‘vulnerable’ subjects. Beyond representing the ‘problem’ along these lines, the identified problem representations may contribute to silencing young people’s agency and ignoring the consequences of a growing labour-market precarisation in Sweden, while failing to provide a basis for equity and social justice.

How can community-based (re)engagement initiatives meet the needs of ‘NEET’ young people? Findings from the theory gleaning phase of a realist evaluation in Sweden

“…Conducted in the Swedish setting, the study presented here also responds to the fact that local multi-component initiatives have been implemented, but never rigorously evaluated in Sweden, despite inquiries and agencies being commissioned to analyse the situation and propose solutions to the ‘NEET’ problem [ 19 ]. Against this backdrop, and considering the COVID-19-pandemic’s added impact on the life chances and living conditions, especially of young people like vulnerable ‘NEETs’ [ 20 ], there is a need for knowledge about ways through which their (re)engagement in education and employment can be facilitated in community settings.…”