Blog

Young People and Digital Disruption

‘Adolescence’: What Others are Saying

In this blog we want to provide an overview of some of the significant commentary, analysis, and arguments that the series 'Adolescence' has provoked. Given the limited space we will provide an admittedly selective survey of these commentaries, and we also provide links to a number of the resources that we cannot discuss in this blog.

Young People and Digital Disruption

‘Adolescence’: A Blue River of Truth?

In this series of blogs we explore the ways in which the concept of ‘enshittification’ can be used to foreground concerns with the increasingly powerful influence of platform economies in shaping young men and women’s engagement with the world in all opportunities and possibilities, inequalities and inequities. We will do this via a critical reading of the Netflix series 'Adolescence' to add to existing community, political and scholarly work on such things as the ‘manosphere’, ‘toxic masculinity’, young people’s identities, the crises of capitalism, and the politics of identity.

Enshittification and the World Wide Dead

This video-based case study attempts to delineate some of the ways that “enshittification” impacts, distorts, and shapes the formation of youth identity.

A Deeper Dive into Enshittification

In a previous blog we introduced Cory Doctorow’s concept of ‘enshittification’ to capture some of our concerns with the ways that social, cultural, economic and political processes appear to be increasingly characterised by various forms of racism, misogyny, proto-fascist, ‘strong man’ politics, and denials of the climate crisis and mass extinctions associated with crises in the dominant model of neoliberal global capitalism. In this blog we want to take a deeper dive into what this metaphor offers for thinking about a range of things beyond Doctorow’s original coining of the term.

Young People and Technical and Vocational Education and Training

New Book. On the Problem of Foundation Skills and the Futures of Work

Our new book - 'On the Problem of Foundation Skills and the Futures of Work' - provides an analysis of how global capitalism, digital disruption, and new worlds of work have reshaped ideas about language, literacy and numeracy (foundation) skills in a neoliberal foundation skills apparatus in Australia since the 1980s.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

On Trump, Authoritarianism, Plutocracy, and the Enshittification* of the Promise for Regenerative and Just Futures for Young People

This blog – which we plan to be the first in an ongoing series of commentary, suggestions, curation of resources, strategies and responses – is a means for us, and our colleagues who we invite to participate, to not ‘turn away’ from that which confronts us at this time, as Trump and his cohort of ‘plutocrats’, and ‘tech-bros’, and far-right fellow travellers in the US and elsewhere are seeking impose themselves on our lives.

Education and the SDGs

New Book: The Cultural Politics of Education, Inclusion and Pluralism in Postcolonial Pakistan

Drawing on my personal and professional experiences growing up and working in Pakistan, this book offers a compelling analysis of education’s promise to achieve inclusive, pluralistic and sustainable societies. These globally shared challenges are examined through a detailed analysis of the cultural politics of education in postcolonial Pakistan, that reveal the ways that the intergenerational traumas of colonialism, neocolonialism, globalisation and forms of extremism continue to present significant challenges for postcolonial Pakistan.

Education and the SDGs

New Book: Educational Leadership and Education for Sustainable Development in Postcolonial Pakistan

This book draws on my extensive personal, professional and research experience to analyses the key challenges and opportunities educational leaders face in realising the promise of quality education for all. Situated in a close analysis of Aga Khan Schools in Chitral District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the book explores the colonial legacies and lingering neocolonial influences on postcolonial Pakistan’s development and education.

Young People and Technical and Vocational Education and Training

Informal Workers and a Political Economy of Lifelong Learning: Provocations from the Margins of Global Capitalism

Our new book analyses the political economies of lifelong learning in regional and global contexts; provides innovative models, concepts, analysis and theoretical contributions to academic and policy debates; and brings together research and evidence from the fields of education, sociology and political economy.

Education and the SDGs

New Book: The Problem of Girls’ Education in Postcolonial Pakistan

This book draws on my extensive policy and research experience about the issues and challenges concerning girls’ education in the postcolonial context of Pakistan. Building on this policy and research experience I focus on gender, education, development and rurality in Balochistan province in Pakistan.

The Biocultural Politics of Young People’s Voice in the Anthropocene

At the 16th European Sociological Association (ESA) conference in Porto (Portugal), James presented a paper which considers how different, speculative modes of storytelling, can provide productive and critical ways to rethink some of the key frameworks that underpin ideas about young people’s ‘voice’.

Crisis + Change + Growing Up in Geelong

The mini-documentary captures the stories of a number of young people in Geelong and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermaths on young people's lives. In watching the video you should look out for the ways in which Carmen, Brandon, Hannah, Mackenzie, Madeline, Jack, James, Emilie, Marisa, Elliot, Josh and Edie, reflect on a number of issues and how some of them experience significant change during this time.

Young People and Technical and Vocational Education and Training

Mechanisms that Capture and Incorporate Student Voice into Vocational Education and Training Design

We – Seth Brown, Scott Phillips, and James Goring, – have just published a report titled, Mechanisms that capture and incorporate student voice into vocational education and training design: Strategies, tools and approaches - Evidence from Australia and the Wider World The report is available here.

Rethinking young people’s aspirations in times of crisis: stories of futures from a de-industrialising city

We have just published an open access article in the British Journal of Sociology of Education titled, "Rethinking young people’s aspirations in times of crisis: stories of futures from a de-industrialising city". The article is available for free download.

Reflections on Doing Video Based Interviews With Young People

In this video/blog we reflect on some of the technological and ethical challenges and opportunities that come from using video-capture technologies in research with young people. We also consider some of the reasons why young people might feel more comfortable consuming digital video content rather than producing content. Finally, we highlight the powerful possibilities for engaging young people in these ways – not only in terms of research, but also where stakeholders want to promote young people’s participation and voice.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Reengaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people in the senior years of schooling: the promise of ‘wild pedagogies’: Part 4

Part Four of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Grace McKerras explores the proposition that ‘wild pedagogies’, as an element of a wider framework of regenerative education, have the potential to reengage CALD young people in the senior years of schooling.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Reengaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people in the senior years of schooling: the promise of ‘wild pedagogies’: Part 3

Part Three of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Grace McKerras explores the proposition that ‘wild pedagogies’, as an element of a wider framework of regenerative education, have the potential to reengage CALD young people in the senior years of schooling.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Reengaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people in the senior years of schooling: the promise of ‘wild pedagogies’: Part 2

Part Two of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Grace McKerras explores the proposition that ‘wild pedagogies’, as an element of a wider framework of regenerative education, have the potential to reengage CALD young people in the senior years of schooling.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Reengaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people in the senior years of schooling: the promise of ‘wild pedagogies’

Part One of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Grace McKerras explores the proposition that ‘wild pedagogies’, as an element of a wider framework of regenerative education, have the potential to reengage CALD young people in the senior years of schooling.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Young people’s health and well-being in a state of perma-crisis: Exploring the promise of regenerative education: Part 4

Part Four of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Alison Read explores how a regenerative education approach can support young people's health and wellbeing in a time of permacrisis.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Young people’s health and well-being in a state of perma-crisis: Exploring the promise of regenerative education: Part 3

Part Three of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Alison Read explores how a regenerative education approach can support young people's health and wellbeing in a time of permacrisis.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Young people’s health and well-being in a state of perma-crisis: Exploring the promise of regenerative education: Part 2

Part Two of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Alison Read explores how a regenerative education approach can support young people's health and wellbeing in a time of permacrisis.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Young people’s health and well-being in a state of perma-crisis: Exploring the promise of regenerative education

Part One of a four-part blog series in which YPSFL Research Associate Alison Read explores how a regenerative education approach can support young people's health and wellbeing in a time of permacrisis.

Israel, Hamas and Young People as Terrorist Targets

Hamas' terrorist attacks in Israel, and the Israeli response, are leading to the deaths of thousands of children and young people. But our hope should be that more moderate voices can emerge during these volatile times. There are moderate Israelis that are appalled at the violence and oppression that is perpetrated by the Israeli state just as there are moderate Palestinians that are appalled at Hamas’ actions and seek to recognise Israel and dream of a two-state solution. These voices must be heard and embraced amidst a 24-hour news cycle that adores the most extreme events and the most volatile opinions.

Hope…in Others

In this blog, I want to introduce an essay, The Hope of Public Philosophy, by Yarran Hominh. What is of interest in this essay, is Hominh’s suggestion that we move from thinking of hope as a futures oriented, object or outcome focused disposition. And to imagine hope as something that we invest in others, and in the possibilities of our relationships with others. My sense is that this is something that we routinely do, but which we don’t think of explicitly in these terms. Nor do we often consider what it might mean to think of hope in these terms, and how thinking of hope in these ways might guide collective responses to the ‘hopelessness of our times’.

Against Optimism

This blog is about trying to think about what the vast amount of evidence - that continues to pile up as the first quarter of the 21st century winds down - of humankind’s history of seemingly endless capacity for irrationality, greed, violence, hatred, intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry, and continued inaction in the midst of the crises of climate, mass extinction and capitalism, means for the very idea of human progress and the suggestion that it bends towards justice.

Geelong’s Little Malop Street Mall: public space and patterns of disadvantage in a post-industrial city: Part 2

In this two-part blog series, we tell a story about Geelong's Little Malop Street Mall, an area of public space in the heart of Geelong's CBD. We explore what this story reveals about the status of public space in the 21st century, and the dynamics of social and economic inequality in the post-industrial city of Geelong.

Generation Dread: Young People’s Mourning for Futures Lost

In this blog, we discuss a recent article by Mikkel Krause Frantzen who explores a range of emotional responses that he identifies as being possible, even widespread, in the context of individual and collective mourning for the things – species, climate conditions, eco-systems, biomes – that we are losing, or are at risk of losing, as the Holocene collapses.

Geelong’s Little Malop Street Mall: public space and patterns of disadvantage in a post-industrial city

The first in a series of two blog posts in which we tell a story about Geelong's Little Malop Street Mall, an area of public space in the heart of Geelong's CBD. We explore what this story reveals about the status of public space in the 21st century, and the dynamics of social and economic inequality in the post-industrial city of Geelong.

Dithering as the Holocene Collapses: The Legacy We Are Leaving Young People and Future Generations

As the Holocene collapses, and the Anthropocene appears increasingly to be baked into the next thousands of years with catastrophic consequences for earth systems and planetary life, we continue with business-as-usual and place young people's futures in peril.

Young People and the Challenge of ‘Living Well’ in the Anthropocene

In previous posts on this blog, we introduced the stories of Daisy and Elijah, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. In the third and final blog post in this series, we develop a discussion around some of the important themes that emerge from Daisy and Elijah's stories.

Elijah’s story

The second in a series of three blogs in which we explore the stories of Daisy and Elijah, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. We consider what these stories provoke us to think about, in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges for young people of 'living well' in the Anthropocene.

Daisy’s story

The first in a series of three blogs in which we explore the stories of Daisy and Elijah, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. We consider what these stories provoke us to think about in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges for young people of 'living well' in the Anthropocene.

Deindustrialisation, youth unemployment, and the (broken) promises of education in the 21st century

In previous posts on this blog, we introduced the stories of Madeline and Marisa, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. In the third and final blog post in this series, we develop a discussion around some of the important themes that emerge from Madeline and Marisa’s stories.

Marisa’s story

The second in a series of three blogs in which we feature the stories of Madeline and Marisa, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. We consider what these stories provoke us to think about, and how the stories can make a productive contribution about young people’s hopes and aspirations in post-pandemic Geelong.

Madeline’s Story

The first in a series of three blogs in which we feature the stories of Madeline and Marisa, two of the young people participating in our research in Geelong. We consider what these stories provoke us to think about, and how the stories can make a productive contribution about young people’s hopes and aspirations in post-pandemic Geelong.

James’ Story

James is a young man from the Geelong region who spoke with us during 2021 and 2022, about his hopes and aspirations about the future – for the planet, his community, and himself.

Young People and the Moral Obligation to be Enterprising and Aspirational in Times of Crisis

We (James Goring, Peter Kelly, Diego Carbajo and Seth Brown) have just published a new paper in the highly ranked, international journal Futures. The article is titled Young People’s Presents and Futures, and the Moral Obligation to be Enterprising and Aspirational in Times of Crisis.

‘Being young’, ‘living well’, in/beyond the pandemic

We (Peter Kelly, Seth Brown and James Goring) have just had a chapter published in a new international collection - Wellbeing: Global Policies and Perspectives, Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond - edited by Annelies Kamp, Cheryl Brown, Trish McMenamin, and Veronica O’Toole. The chapter is titled ‘Being young’, ‘living well’, in/beyond the pandemic: Exploring the entanglements between COVID-19, the Anthropocene and young people’s wellbeing.

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Intergenerational Justice, the Climate Crisis and Young People’s Futures

In the context of the climate crisis, current ideas about intergenerational justice are focussed on contemporary populations of young people, and as yet un-born generations, and the futures that our past and present actions will visit on these generations.

Young People’s Voices and Participation and the Beginnings of ‘Co-Design’

In their recent book – Youth rising?: The politics of youth in the global economy – Mayssoun Sukarieh and Stuart Tannock (2014, p. 143) reflect on the problematic character of young people’s voices and participation in movements against such things as the climate crisis, war, and racism, and their encounters with the institutionalised promise of ‘youth participation’.

Young People’s Mental Health and Well-being in the Pandemic

Throughout the different waves and stages and responses to the pandemic there has been much commentary about the impacts of the crisis on the health and well-being of young people, including from agencies such as the National Youth Commission, YACVic and Mission Australia.

Aspiration and Young People’s Sense of their Futures in the Time of COVID

Introduction: Young People’s Aspirations, Health and Well-being and Voices in Geelong During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In a series of blogs we will provide an outline of three of the key themes that have emerged during the first year (2021) of a three (3) year project that we are conducting in Geelong, Victoria’s (AUSTRALIA) second largest city.

Inner North of Melbourne

COVID-19 and young people’s ‘Future Presents’: lockdown stories from the Anthropocene

Young People and the Climate Crisis

School Strikes for Climate: Young People, Dissent and Collective Identities in/for the Anthropocene

Inner North of Melbourne

Ash’s Story

COVID, Lockdowns and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-being: A Perspective From Geelong

Young People and the Climate Crisis

Blah, Blah, Blah: Young People, the Climate Crisis, Hope and the ‘Dithering’ of Adults

Young People and Digital Disruption

Young People as Biocultural Creatures: Re-imagining Sociologies of Young People’s Well-being

Inner North of Melbourne

Bella’s Story

Inner North of Melbourne

Connor’s Story

Inner North of Melbourne

Carmen’s Story

Inner North of Melbourne

Rosie’s Story