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Chapter Nine Conclusion
This thesis has explored some of the socio-cultural and political-economic dispositions, emotions, thoughts, and to a more limited extent, practices and
experiences of young people living in the neoliberal urban societies of LA and London. It has examined, among other factors, their political awareness, media-
culture interests and interpretations, their leisure time activities, future aspirations, and the implications of all of these things for the contribution of these young
people to the reproduction or contestation of neoliberal discourses and practices. The thesis has also sought to map out and unpack some of the content, central
tendencies, and conceptual, lexical, and semantic associations that constitute these young people’s socio-cultural and political-economic schemata, and discussed
some of the insights that these can contribute to a socio-cognitive approach to critical and progressive pedagogy aimed at helping young people develop a more
cognizant awareness of neoliberal discourses and practices and their roles in reproducing or contesting them. This chapter begins with an overview of some the
main themes discussed, and lessons found, in each chapter. It then proceeds to a discussion of some of the limitations of this study, and the lessons learned that can
inform future research on this topic.
9.1 Overview of Chapter Themes and Lessons
In Chapter 1, I discussed the genealogy and ontological claims of neoliberal theory, and traced some of the structural consequences that neoliberal policies
have had for UK and US societies. In particular, I described some of the ways that neoliberal ideology has structurally and discursively shaped major political-
economic and socio-cultural UK and US institutions e.g., corporations, think- tanks, welfare institutions, schools, non-profit organizations, and culture
industries, creating what Plehwe et al., 2007 refer to as a network of hegemonic constellations that, in effect, legitimate and promote neoliberalism domestically
and globally. From the analysis offered in this chapter, I outlined some of the possible implications that neoliberalism may pose for the political-economic and
socio-cultural cognitive frameworks and concordant practices of contemporary
urban UK and US young people.
253 In Chapter 2, I discussed the leading theories on capitalist social reproduction
and its corresponding media driven consumer culture. This included some of the works of the classic and contemporary Frankfurt schools, the classic Birmingham
School of Cultural Studies, and some of the key concepts and arguments from the works of Louis Althusser, Pierre Bourdieu, and Teun van Dijk. I paid particular
attention to the empirical validity and criticisms of these approaches, and argued that a synthesis of their strengths, coupled with often neglected insights from
cognitive and social psychology is needed to comprehensively theorize and research neoliberal hegemony and its multi-faceted and wide reaching material
and discursive effects. I ended this chapter by setting out the broad conceptual framework that guided the methodology and data analysis for the empirical
component of this thesis. In Chapter 3, I connected the discussions of Chapters 1 and 2 to the wide
literature on young people and youth culture. Specifically, I used the guidelines laid out in Chapter 2 to analyze four of the most prevalent themes found in the
contemporary literature on young people and youth culture. These themes consisted of young people’s accounts of identity construction, their agentic use of
media-culture, the effects of media- culture on young people’s socio-cognitive
development, and youth political and civic engagement. From this preliminary meta-analysis, both gaps and insights were identified that further informed the
empirical component of this thesis. In Chapter 4, I described the methodology used for the empirical component
of this thesis. By drawing on all the lessons and insights that came out of the literature reviewed in the first three chapters, I discussed the ontological
orientations of my study, and laid out the research design and methodology. This methodology consisted of a broad array of qualitative inductive, critical-
ethnographic, interview, and triangulation methods that were employed to collect data from a cross-sectional sample of LA and London millenials. This chapter also
described the research sites where I carried out this study, the processes by which I gained access to them and the participants, the interviews with participants, and
the ethical considerations that needed to be addressed. I ended the chapter by explaining how I conducted the data analysis using a combination of thematic,
critical discourse, and socio-cognitive inspired analytic strategies culminating in
254 the construction of a three-fold actualreal typology of LA and London young
people, which I categorized as:
CriticalPolitical, ArtsyIndie,
and
Mainstream.
In Chapter 5, I described the first classification of my typology of LA and London young people:
CriticalPolitical
. From these participants’ accounts of their socio-cultural experiences and political-economic knowledge, and
particularly from their interpretations of their preferred media texts, I tentatively suggested that their cognitive frameworks of the social world are imbued with
transposable critical, political, and empathetic dispositions. These dispositions, manifested as automatically expressed attitudes, inclinations, and rapid shifts
between domain specific subjects, tended to lead and correspond to politically informed and detailed responses that were consistently critical of existing and
dominant socio-cultural and political-economic discourses and practices. My account of these dispositions drew upon a socio-cognitive inspired critical
discourse and bundle association analysis of the lexical, semantic, and conceptual associations, as well as voice intonations, facial expressions, and response times
from the interviews with these participants. Of particular note, I highlighted how these young people’s informed opinions on various domain specific subjects like
education, media-culture, consumerism, welfare, and politics, and their abilities to rapidly, automatically, and seemingly unconsciously move across and make
connections between them, suggests that their underlying socio-cultural and political-economic schemata, are intimately and intricately integrated.
I also noted how even though most of the young people in this classification answered most of my questions in a similar manner. That is, they shared many of
the same views and opinions on various subjects, only three of them held a conception of political-economic organization that was ontologically antithetical
to the standard neoliberal model. The others expressed a preference for what can be considered a more KeynesianLeft Neoliberal social democratic system
excluding Sam who identified as a Trotskyist socialist, which is probably premised on their ontological presuppositions which hold that human beings are
too selfish to be able to implement and maintain a more radical alternative, however more preferable that alternative may be. This automatic belief that
humans are predominantly selfish, appeared to be a deeply ingrained disposition in most of these young people, despite their politically precocious and highly
empathetic views - one that, in effect, lends itself to the passive acceptance, and
255 thus consequent reproduction of, neoliberalism. Nonetheless, uncovering these
fatalistic dispositions provided a valuable insight that helped me in forming recommendations that can contribute to a more socio-cognitive approach to
critical and progressive pedagogic discussed in Chapter 8. In Chapter 6, I described some of major socio-cultural experiences and leisure
activities of the second classification of young people:
ArtsyIndie.
From the responses of these artistically inclined young people, I argued that a preoccupation
with varying forms of cultural production provided these young people with a space to avoid the dominant neoliberal discourses of consumer capitalism. I also
noted how this proactive engagement with artistic pursuits corresponds to their affective and aesthetic dispositions and tentative rejection of mainstream-culture.
However, while expressing a degree of compassion for the suffering of others, which however ambivalent was most noticeable in their support for welfare
programmes, these young people exhibited dispositions that were largely centred around individualistic aesthetic pursuits, which seem to correspond to their
apolitical dispositional tendencies to avoid engagement with current political issues and struggles. From these insights, I argued that it is entirely possible that
since these
ArtsyIndie
young people seem to have a dispositional aversion to political concerns, pedagogic strategies aimed at developing their critical and
political dispositions and by inference those of other young people who can be loosely situated within this classification may fall on deaf ears. Moreover, by
unpacking some of the central tendencies of their political-economic schemata, I also noted how their political-economic knowledge, while more substantial than
that of the
Mainstream
young people, was still underdeveloped relative to that of the
CriticalPolitical
young people. Overall, the findings from this chapter suggest that at the very least, these young people may benefit from a more tailored and
socio-cognitive approach to pedagogy that takes into account their aesthetic and apolitical dispositions.
In Chapter 7, I described the
Mainstream
young people. Out of all three classifications, the
Mainstream
young people were the ones who most readily echoed the dominant neoliberal discourses of individual responsibility and upward
mobility. Contra the cultural populist thesis that positions young people as sovereign agents who are beyond the influence of corporate culture, I argued and
highlighted how these young people expressed career aspirations, and self-
256 interested, apathetic, and consumeristic dispositions that mirrored those promoted
by their favourite media texts, which were generally highly corporatized.. Moreover, given that these young people expressed especially under-developed
political-economic schemata, it is unlikely that they actively adopted such discourses after having compared and contrasted them with opposing ones.
However, in unpacking some of the central tendencies of their socio-cultural and political-economic schemata, I also highlighted potential spaces for neoliberal
contestation. Moreover, unlike the
ArtsyIndie
young people who expressed a more pronounced apolitical disposition, these young people’s political apathy may
be a result of their relative underexposure to political-economic knowledge and practices, with the majority of the London participants, in particular, commenting
that they have not had any lessons in civics or politics during their time in secondary schools. Hence, it would be inaccurate to classify these young people as
apolitical, since they are not actively avoiding political-economic information and ideas; it is simply that their surrounding interpellating environments e.g., schools,
youth centres, and media-culture have only presented them with one particular set of mostly neoliberal consumerist discourses. This was nonetheless potentially a
positive insight, as there is no telling what the effects of a more critical and progressive pedagogy of the sort described in Chapter 8 may have on their
political consciousness. However, unless such efforts are implemented, and implemented thoroughly, it is very likely that this group of young people will
continue to reproduce neoliberal discourses and practices at a mostly dispositional level.
Finally, in Chapter 8, I reviewed the central tenets and political objectives of critical and progressive pedagogy. Drawing on the empirical findings of my study,
I argued that these types of pedagogies seem to overlook the dispositional barriers that some young people may have developed and which can significantly filter out
political information and social justice concerns. Moreover, I indicated what a socio-cognitive approach to pedagogy, aimed at fostering democratic, empathetic,
critical, tolerant, and political dispositions, and at helping to displace pre-existing fatalistic, uncritical, apathetic, and apolitical dispositions, might entail. Following
this, I laid out a series of activities that may help to achieve these goals. I ended the chapter with concluding remarks emphasizing the limitations of these
proposed activities.
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9.2 Methodological Limitations and Lessons