Contesting Neoliberalism: A Partial Opening

221 by France 1998. However, equating citizenry and social responsibility along these lines offers a narrow view of democratic citizenship that engenders very passive and limited political practices, and thus the ‘crisis in democracy’ reflects a more fundamentally semantic and conceptual problem about the meaning of democratic citizenship. In other words, if democracy is equated with neoliberal political norms and values centred on discourses of self-reliance and community involvement via occasional volunteerism andor systems of electoral representation, than Mainstream young people are largely fulfilling their roles and responsibilities as citizens despite of their limited political knowledge and political apathy. If, however, democracy means a more direct and egalitarian form of collective decision-making and problem solving, than Mainstream young people, regardless of their social positioning, are neglecting their roles and responsibilities as citizens and conscientious political agents. If the first conception is valid, then there is no crisis; if the second conception is valid, then there is a crisis. However, whilst increasing social services that recognize cultural rights and offer meaningful job opportunities to young people as France 1998 suggests, may allow Mainstream young people to realize their material aspirations, they may have limited effects on their democratic ethos. As I will argue in the next chapter, this requires a more comprehensive education and participation in genuinely democratic values and practices.

7.6 Contesting Neoliberalism: A Partial Opening

However, even participants from this group at times expressed progressive and arguably counter neoliberal views, with all but one of them supporting welfare programmes to some limited extent, and suggesting that the government should step in to help solve large-scale social problems like poverty and global warming. Moreover, most of these young people mentored younger students in their leisure time. While in most cases they were financially incentivized to do so, they all expressed the view that they enjoyed mentoring underprivileged young people, and in this respect, expressed more altruistic tendencies. Tyrone Hackney participant and Dennis Zoo participant brought up particularly noteworthy points which I believe signify a point of departure from neoliberal discourses as well as a potential opening for pedagogic intervention. 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