Abstract
The chapter offers something of a post-critical reading of youth transition through and beyond secondary school towards some form of work in the context of the Republic of Ireland (Ireland). The chapter takes material-semiotic tools, media reportage and extant research to consider what I refer to as the ‘pre-assemblage’ of young people moving through, and beyond, second-level school in what appears as some kind of post-austerity context. In doing this, the chapter brings into focus actors, both distant and local, human and nonhuman, who in various ways shape and form, by subtle and not-so-subtle means, and contribute, or impede, the movement of young people beyond a primary engagement with formal education and the consequences of this for young people’s health and well-being, broadly defined.
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Notes
- 1.
Skill New Zealand was a Crown Agency working at the interface of education and employment. Its former responsibilities are now managed by the Tertiary Education Commission.
- 2.
This is not to suggest that a job, any job, is inherently good. That issue is canvassed elsewhere in this collection.
- 3.
During its early years, there was some roll-back on the form of involvement of the university sector.
- 4.
Since 2009, there have been concerted attempts by Ministers of Education to undertake radical reform of the Junior Certificate, moving it away from a ‘high-stakes’ summative examination. At the time of writing, this has not been achieved MURRAY, N. 2015. Junior Cert Reform at Risk After Poll. Irish Examiner, 25 September 2015.
- 5.
The research was funded by the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS).
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Kamp, A. (2017). 12 Pre-assembling Our Young: Points of Movement in Post-Austerity Ireland. In: Kelly, P., Pike, J. (eds) Neo-Liberalism and Austerity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58266-9_13
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