ABSTRACT
Henry Giroux is a leading, even ‘distinguished’, figure in what might be called Anglo-American critical sociological and cultural studies of young people, education and the politics of curriculum and pedagogy. In his contribution to A Critical Youth Studies for the 21st Century Henry takes up some of these same themes and makes them more explicitly connected to the contemporary circumstances in which young people find themselves in many of the neo-Liberal democracies, the US in particular. The space in which there is ‘no-necessary correspondence’ between, say, government regulated competitive markets in the provision of ‘employment services’, and ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ in employment outcomes for unemployed young people. The chapter suggests that young people and young adults, and the generations who will follow and grow up in the unfolding aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, carry a particularly heavy burden in terms of changed education and employment circumstances and opportunities.
