ABSTRACT
This chapter problematizes the common-sense idea that education's primary focus should be preparing people for work, and the associated ideas of education to enhance students' “employability.” We highlight the ways in which such a focus, grounded in a universalized, “developmentalist” logic, both narrows and limits the potentials of education. In particular, we argue that under the current phase of neoliberal capitalism, such terms operate to further shift responsibility for employment and unemployment onto individuals, and deflect attention from capitalism's incapacity to provide meaningful, secure work for all.
