Risk, resistance and the neoliberal agenda: young people, health and well-being in the UK, Canada and Australia

Abstract

. (2013) 'Risk, resistance and the neoliberal agenda : young people, health and well-being in the UK, Canada and Australia.', Health, risk and society., 15 (4). pp. 333-346. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10. 1080/13698575.2013.796346 Publisher's copyright statement:This is an electronic version of an article published in Brown, S. and Shoveller, J. and Chabot, C. and La Montagne, A.(2013) 'Risk, resistance and the neoliberal agenda : young people, health and well-being in the UK, Canada and Australia.', Health, risk and society., 15 (4). pp. 333-346. Health, risk and society is available online at:http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=articleissn=1369-8575volume=15issue=4spage=333Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractIn this article we describe how concepts of risk are both generated by and used to reinforce a neo-liberal agenda in relation to the health and well being of young people.We examine how risk may be used as a tool to advance ideals such as rational choice and individual responsibility, and how this can further disadvantage young people living within contexts of structural disadvantage (such as geographic areas of long-term unemployment; communities that experience racial discrimination). We also identify the ways in which risk is applied in uneven ways within structurally disadvantaged contexts.To suggest a way forward, we articulate a set of principles and strategies that offer up a means of resisting neo-liberal imperatives and suggest how these might play out at the micro-, meso-and macro-levels. To do this, we discuss examples from UK, Canadian and Australian contexts to illustrate how young people resist being labeled as risky, and how it is possible to engage in health equity enhancing actions, despite seemingly deterministic forces. The cases we describe reveal some of the vulnerabilities (and hence opportunities) within the seemingly impenetrable worldview and powers of neoliberals and point towards the potential to formulate an agenda of resistance and new directions for promotion the health of young people.

The risk of users’ choice: exploring the case of direct payments in German social care

“…Commentators often ascribe the increased awareness of and concern about risk in health and welfare to the broad social changes such as the development of the 'risk society' (Beck, 1992;Green, 2007, p. 397ff;Webb, 2006) or to more specific changes in the governance of public services such as neoliberal rationales and policies (Brown, Shoveller, Chabot, & LaMontagne, 2013;Kemshall, 2010;Parton, 1998). Commentators tend to argue that this increased emphasis on risk has negative consequences for service users, for example by shifting responsibility from service providers to users (Green, 2007), even though they might not be able to handle the responsibility (Kemshall, 2010(Kemshall, , p. 1253.…”

Explaining Trends in Risk Governance: How Problem Definitions Underpin Risk Regimes

“…The calculative rationality embodied in this actuarial approach to risk management leads to a prudential focus on preemptive regulation that minimizes expected negative outcomes and maximizes expected beneficial returns—thereby increasing the efficiency of social control (O'Malley, ). “Socialized risk management schemes,” however, are rejected in favor of an individualization of risk and the idea that active citizens should take responsibility for protecting themselves, a process dubbed “responsibilization” (Brown, Shoveller, Chabot, & LaMontagne, ; Drake, ; Glasgow & Schrecker, ). Preventive strategies follow from the adoption of actuarial governing strategies (O'Malley, ), and surveillance is a mechanism for encouraging responsibilization through lowering transaction costs to acquire information in decentered regulatory environments.…”

Muted resistance: The deployment of youth voice in news coverage of young women’s sexuality in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Overall, the association of risk with developmental stage supports an individualised conception of youth risk that coheres with a neoliberal logic and presupposes free will and personal responsibility (Brown et al, 2013;Chmielewski et al, 2017). Accordingly, …[young women] are individually responsible for making 'good sexual choices' and are held individually accountable when things go awry as a result of making 'bad sexual choices'.…”