Citizen Youth: Culture, Activism, and Agency in a Neoliberal Era

197 Pages·2011·2.65 MB·English

by  Jacqueline Kennelly (auth.)

EDUCATION, POLITICS, AND PUBLIC LIFE
Series Editors:
Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University
Susan Searls Giroux, McMaster University
Within the last three decades, education as a political, moral, and ideological
practice has become central to rethinking not only the role of public and
higher education, but also the emergence of pedagogical sites outside of the
schools—which include but are not limited to the Internet, television, film,
magazines, and the media of print culture. Education as both a form of
schooling and public pedagogy reaches into every aspect of political, eco-
nomic, and social life. What is particularly important in this highly interdis-
ciplinary and politically nuanced view of education are a number of issues
that now connect learning to social change, the operations of democratic
public life, and the formation of critically engaged individual and social
agents. At the center of this series will be questions regarding what young
people, adults, academics, artists, and cultural workers need to know to be
able to live in an inclusive and just democracy and what it would mean to
develop institutional capacities to reintroduce politics and public commit-
ment into everyday life. Books in this series aim to play a vital role in rethink-
ing the entire project of the related themes of politics, democratic struggles,
and critical education within the global public sphere.
SERIES EDITORS:
HENRY A. GIROUX holds the Global TV Network Chair in English and
Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. He is on the editorial
and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly jour-
nals. Professor Giroux was selected as a Kappa Delta Pi Laureate in 1998 and
was the recipient of a Getty Research Institute Visiting Scholar Award in
1999. He was the recipient of the Hooker Distinguished Professor Award for
2001. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Memorial
University of Newfoundland in 2005. His most recent books include Take
Back Higher Education (co-authored with Susan Searls Giroux, 2006);
America on the Edge (2006); Beyond the Spectacle of Terrorism (2006); Stormy
Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability (2006); The University in
Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007); and
Against the Terror of Neoliberalism: Politics Beyond the Age of Greed (2008).
SUSAN SEARLS GIROUX is Associate Professor of English and Cultural
Studies at McMaster University. Her most recent books include The Theory
Toolbox (co-authored with Jeff Nealon, 2004) and Take Back Higher
Education (co-authored with Henry A. Giroux, 2006), and Between Race
and Reason: Violence, Intellectual Responsibility, and the University to
Come (2010). Professor Giroux is also the Managing Editor of The Review of
Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies.
Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times: Hope and Possibilities
Edited by Sheila L. Macrine
The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy
Kenneth J. Saltman
Feminist Theory in Pursuit of the Public: Women and the
“Re-Privatization” of Labor
Robin Truth Goodman
Hollywood’s Exploited: Public Pedagogy, Corporate Movies, and Cultural
Crisis
Edited by Benjamin Frymer, Tony Kashani, Anthony J. Nocella, II, and
Richard Van Heertum; with a Foreword by Lawrence Grossberg
Education out of Bounds: Reimagining Cultural Studies
for a Posthuman Age
Tyson E. Lewis and Richard Kahn
Academic Freedom in the Post-9/11 Era
Edited by Edward J. Carvalho and David B. Downing
Educating Youth for a World beyond Violence
H. Svi Shapiro
Rituals and Student Identity in Education: Ritual Critique for a New
Pedagogy
Richard A. Quantz with Terry O’Connor and Peter Magolda
Citizen Youth: Culture, Activism, and Agency in a Neoliberal Era
Jacqueline Kennelly
Conflicts in Curriculum Theory: Challenging Hegemonic Epistemologies
João M. Paraskeva
America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy post-9/11
Sophia A. McClennen (forthcoming)
Citizen Youth
Culture, Activism, and Agency
in a Neoliberal Era
Jacqueline Kennelly
CITIZEN YOUTH
Copyright © Jacqueline Kennelly, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-10668-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29032-1 ISBN 978-0-230-11961-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230119611
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennelly, Jacqueline.
Citizen youth : culture, activism, and agency in a neoliberal era /
Jacqueline Kennelly.
p. cm.
1. Urban youth—Political activity—Canada. 2. Social movements—
Canada. 3. Subculture—Canada. I. Title.
HQ799.C2K46 2011
303.48(cid:2)408350971—dc22 2011001490
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: July 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
KaiLin Kennelly Duong,
my future Citizen Youth
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: “Citizen Youth” in the
Twenty-first Century 1
1 Understanding Youth Political Engagement: Youth
Citizenship as Governance 19
2 Constructing the Good Youth Citizen: A History
of the Present 33
3 Good Citizen/Bad Activist: The Cultural Role
of the State in Youth Political Participation 47
4 Class Exclusions, Racialized Identities: The Symbolic
Economy of Youth Activism 73
5 Becoming Actors: Agency and Youth
Activist Subcultures 111
6 Conclusions 133
Appendix: Research Methods 143
Notes 161
References 169
Index 185
Acknowledgments
A
ny piece of academic or creative work is built upon a founda-
tion of relationships and support, and this one is no exception.
I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded, at all stages of
development of this work, by friends, family, and colleagues who
have given me the resources, feedback, and words of wisdom
that have allowed me to proceed. The original dissertation upon
which this book is based was nurtured through from inception
to completion under the thoughtful and insightful guidance of
my doctoral supervisor, Jo-Anne Dillabough, to whom I owe
more than she will ever know. Her keen theoretical mind, her
deep commitment to truth and justice, and her outstanding
mentoring skills permeate the book from start to finish. Mona
Gleason and Deirdre Kelly were also essential to the successful
completion of that original project, and their feedback and sup-
port continue to shine through in this final book version of the
work. Kari Dehli, Kathleen Gallagher, and Roger Simon were
pivotal in providing me with academic community and research
space during the fieldwork period in Toronto. Without you all,
this project would never have happened.
More recently, I have benefited tremendously from the insti-
tutional support of Diane Reay, my postdoctoral supervisor at
the University of Cambridge, and Peter Gose, chair of the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton
University, where I currently work. They each permitted me the
space and facilities that allowed me to convert the original dis-
sertation into its final book form. Susan Valentine, Stuart
Poyntz, Bernhard Leistle, Jen Pylypa, Justin Paulson, Xiaobei
Chen, and Augustine Park all played key roles at various points
in the manuscript’s development, through feedback on early
chapters and the draft prospectus. I owe a big debt of gratitude
x Acknowledgments
to Susan Searles Giroux, who first encouraged me to submit my
prospectus to Palgrave, and a further debt to her and Henry
Giroux for including this book within their series. Deep thanks
to my cheerful and indomitable editor at Palgrave, Burke
Gerstenschlager, who stood by me and cheered me on from the
sidelines during the final few months before the deadline, as
circumstances threw barrier after barrier in my path. Likewise
to the two editorial assistants with whom I had the pleasure to
work, Samantha Hasey and Kaylan Connally, who helped sort
through the final nitty-gritty of bringing this project to com-
pletion. I owe a huge debt to Karen Tucker, who literally became
my left arm in order to complete the manuscript (almost to
deadline), and Marlene Brancato and all of the other adminis-
trative staff in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
at Carleton University, who worked tirelessly to get me the
support I needed when life was getting in the way.
Revised versions of sections of this book have previously
appeared or are soon to be published elsewhere as journal
articles. These are:
Kennelly, J. and K. Llewellyn. (In press). Educating for active
compliance: Discursive constructions in citizenship education.
Citizenship Studies.
Kennelly, J. (2009). Learning to protest: youth activist cul-
tural politics in contemporary urban Canada. Review of
Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. Volume 31, Issue 4,
pp. 293–316.
Kennelly, J. (2009). Good citizen/bad activist: the cultural role
of the state in youth activism. Review of Education, Pedagogy,
and Cultural Studies. Volume 31, Issues 2–3, pp. 127–149.
Kennelly, J. (2009). Youth cultures, activism, and agency:
revisiting feminist debates. Gender and Education. Volume 21,
Issue 3, pp. 259–272.
Kennelly, J. (2011). Policing young people as citizens-in-
waiting: legitimacy, spatiality, and governance. British Journal
of Criminology. Volume 51, pp. 336–354.
I also wish to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), from
Acknowledgments xi
whom I received a doctoral scholarship and a postdoctoral fel-
lowship, both of which provided the financial backing that per-
mitted this work to reach fruition. Likewise, a Killam predoctoral
fellowship was integral to supporting this work, as were
research and travel grants provided by the University of British
Columbia’s Faculties of Graduate Studies and Education.
On a more personal note, I wish to acknowledge my parents,
the pillars of endurance who have seen me through all of life’s
ups and downs: Barbara Kennelly, Lawrence Cornett, and
Kenneth Arenson. I am also grateful to my former spouse, Cuc
Duong, who was by my side for most of this project. Though
our paths are diverging, I am thankful that she remains a part
of my life, as coparent and friend.
Finally, my greatest debt of gratitude is owed to the youth
participants themselves, those incredibly inspiring, creative, and
energetic individuals who generously shared with me their
thoughts, their experiences, and their lives. I hope this work
proves useful to them and to others like them who are working
hard to make the world a better place.