The paper addresses NEET 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, the broken society as well as, paradoxically, that of social recession. Consequently, such arguments divert attention from processes of 'othering', 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 we can discern similar tendencies. '. (Pearson, 1975: pxi)
Both those inside the policy discourse and those whose professional identities are established through antagonism towards the discourse benefit from the uncertainties and tragedies of reform. Critical researchers, apparently ensconced in the moral