ABSTRACT
This chapter is mainly conceptual and theoretical. It starts with conceptual and definitional issues related to the use of the category NEET by official bodies, such as governments, inter-governmental organisations, the European Union and so on and with its use in informing current policy making and decisions. It then proceeds to a critique of the concept along the lines of its introduction and usage within the context of neoliberal discourses about the labour market and justification of flexibilisation and precariousness. This critical stance characterises the whole book and affects the different and divergent ways that we use the category NEETs, which is relatively cautionary and acknowledges that different meanings may be attached to it thus leading to different policy proposals and outcomes.
