Revisiting the vulnerability ethos in cross-sectoral transition policies and practices for young people in the era of marketisation of education

Abstract

The ethos of vulnerability has come to play an increasingly central role in shaping cross-sectoral transition policies and practices related to young people outside of education and working life. Yet the wider effects of this ethos in policies and practices are still rarely analysed. In this article, we draw our data from five separate studies. The data set includes policy documents, news reports, programme guidelines as well as interview and ethnographic data. This article shows what kinds of effects the ethos of vulnerability in cross-sectoral transition policies and practices can have on young people outside education and working life.

Shaping activation policy at the street level: Governing inactivity in youth employment services

“…The data collection was part of a multi-sited and collaborative project, 3 which addressed the question of youth employment within the network of governmental, municipal, private, and third-sector institutions described earlier (Haikkola et al, 2017;Brunila et al, 2016). From the larger dataset, this article focuses on the PES because, as a government body, they are legally responsible for implementing labour market policies and can use the threat of financial sanctions in their guidance work (Caswell et al, 2010).…”

“…The clients I eventually came to observe were a heterogeneous group with various concerns and aspirations (based on my observations during the meetings). They did not fit the public perception of vulnerable and risky young people advocated by Finnish policy and public discourse (Brunila et al, 2016). They included prospective students who had failed to get into their preferred educational programme, who were looking to continue their unfinished programmes, who wanted a career change or study advice, or who had had problems in the past but were now looking for new directions.…”

Ethical and Care-Oriented, but Still Psychological and ‘At Risk’: Teachers’ Constructions of Young People’s Transition from School to Society

“…The competitive school agenda needs to be combined with a therapeutic, caring discourse in order to be successful and acceptable on the market (cf. McCuaig, 2012;Brunila et al, 2016).…”

“…Nonetheless, they tend to be made responsible for their own future and life in society (cf. McLaughlin, 2012;Brunila et al, 2016;Brunila & Rossi, 2017). What therapeutic education needs, according to this critical understanding of therapeutic education, is not more intervention but rather more critical reflection on the intervention programmes that are in use in many schools in Western society (see also Gillies, 2011;Myers, 2012;Ecclestone & Brunila, 2015).…”

Governing of young people ‘at risk’ with the alliance of employability and precariousness in the EU youth policy steering

“…With the help of so-called ‘soft’ governing methods introduced in the Lisbon Strategy (CEU, 2000), these policy initiatives have been implemented in most EU member states (see COM, 2016). In the EU governing bodies, young people, especially those living in rural areas, early school leavers, young women, ethnic minorities and immigrants, are often presented as being ‘at risk’ of social exclusion, unemployment or marginalisation, or as being vulnerable and precarious (Brunila et al., 2016, 2017; COM, 2012; Ecclestone and Brunila, 2015). To reduce that risk, EU policy has set an imperative to promote the so-called employability skills of young people, mainly referring to young people of 18–25 years of age (CEU, 2013).…”