Concluding Remarks rodolfo leyva neoliberalism and the cultural and political dispositions and practices of millennials in london and la

222 When asked if he thought about the conditions under which the clothes he likes are made, Tyrone responded: “No but in discussions like this it does [make me think] ”. This acknowledgment and his display of mild cognitive dissonance, whereby he seemed unsettled thinking about these issues as could be gauged from his more sombre tone and facial expressions, was a phenomenon that I observed amongst other Mainstream young people. This suggests that further exposure to these topics may have an impact on their consumption practices. Dennis instantly expressed support for welfare programmes, which is potentially related or influenced by his factual knowledge of US welfare services, noting accurately some of the limitations of these programmes: Dennis: And you can’t really get welfare more than five years, It’s not, you know, it’s not something that is going to take care of somebody for too long, and the money really isn’t enough to take care of somebody. You can’t really buy, like, you can’t really have more clothes or more this or more that, you don’t really have more money for that, from welfare. Zoo participant Although these are highly tentative, the main insights to take from Tyrone’s and Dennis’ statements, and others like them from other Mainstream young people, are that there is some degree of compassion in their views and beliefs in most instances this is noticeable in their voice intonations which take a more sombre tone when talking about issues of poverty and labour exploitation. Hence, and crucially, unlike neoliberal economists for instance, and with the exception of Jenkins Hackney participant, these young people do not resort to rationalizing their consumptive practices on the grounds that it provides jobs for people in the developing world, and in that sense, this discursive engagement differs significantly from how a more ideal neoliberal would respond, and sheds some light, however dimly, on the moments where these young people contest neoliberal discourses.

7.7 Concluding Remarks

I have argued earlier in this thesis that neoliberalism is, in part, maintained by a mutually reinforcing material base and discursive superstructure apparatus where the labour and environmental exploitation and consequent social inequality is coded and mystified by discourses of inevitability, progress, efficiency, economic 223 growth, consumption, materialism, rational choice, and rugged individualism, amongst others. Within this system, individuals either ignore the larger political- economic system or entrust it to elites and technocrats, and focus mostly on forms of consumption that can best satisfy their self-interests. And their value as individuals is based not on their inherent humanity, but on how much capital they can acquire via their individual effort. While neoliberal interpellation is never total, and always contested, the majority of the responses from the Mainstream young people, indicate that their socio-cultural and political-economic schemata to a significant extent mirror those of dominant neoliberal discourses and practices, and particularly more so than is the case with the ArtsyIndie and CriticalPolitical young people. This is not to suggest that the Mainstream young people are neoliberal automatons, but simply, as I believe Bourdieu 1990a would argue, their socio-cognitive frameworks and homologous practices have been inflected by neoliberal discourses to the extent that they appear to be reproducing them at a mostly unconscious dispositional level. Nonetheless, mapping out the socio- cultural and political-economic schematic content of these young people’s sense making frameworks revealed potential spaces for neoliberal discursive contestation that, I will suggest in the next chapter, can be exploited by pedagogies aimed at challenging neoliberalism, or at the very least, of getting young people to be more cognizant of their roles in reproducing it. 224 Chapter Eight Discussion: Towards A Socio-Cognitive Approach To Critical And Progressive Pedagogy “ I think one reason it is so important to break out of the monoculture of the mind, is to recognize that this world has so many alternatives. There are so many alternatives to the industrial agriculture based on fossil fuels and chemicals. There are so many alternatives to a banking system based on fraud. There are so many alternatives to the unrepresentative representative democracy ” . –Vandana Shiva 74 In the previous three chapters, a socio-cognitive approach to understanding neoliberal and counter-neoliberal discursive interpellation guided the exploration and analysis of the substantive content of my youth participants’ socio-cultural and political-economic schemata, and led to the construction of a three-fold typology of LA and London young people consisting of classifications that I have referred to as CriticalPolitical, ArtsyIndie, and Mainstream. While the young people positioned within these classifications did not all share the same exact political-economic views or socio-cultural experiences, preferences, and practices, they expressed significant similarities to warrant being grouped in one of the above three classifications. In this chapter, I will attempt to show how these young people’s shared schematic content and unique accounts offer insights that can inform the work of critical and progressive educators concerned with progressive social change. This chapter begins with an overview of some the basic tenets of the existing literature on critical and progressive pedagogy. It then reviews some of major characteristics of the CriticalPolitical, ArtsyIndie, and Mainstream LA and London types, with an emphasis on the implications that each of their shared dispositions poses for critical and progressive pedagogy. I then move on to indicate the curriculum content of what a socio-cognitive approach to critical and progressive pedagogy might entail. This is a curriculum designed to help young people to be more cognizant of neoliberal discourses and practices, and their roles in reproducing or contesting them, in addition to developing within them more critical, political, democratic, co-operative, tolerant, and empathetic dispositions 74 Retrieved from: http:www.creatingfreedom.info 225 that can help to replace, offset, or contest any pre-existing fatalistic, apathetic, uncritical, self-interested, and apolitical dispositions. Additionally, I provide examples of classroom activities aimed at fostering these dispositions.

8.1 Critical and Progressive Pedagogy and Democracy