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Between unemployment and enterprise in neoliberal India: Educated youth creating work in the private education sector
Author(s) -
Deuchar Andrew,
Dyson Jane
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/tran.12364
Subject(s) - coaching , subjectivity , unemployment , work (physics) , argument (complex analysis) , sociology , private sector , value (mathematics) , ethnography , inequality , youth unemployment , economic growth , public relations , gender studies , political science , economics , management , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , epistemology , machine learning , computer science , anthropology , engineering
This paper draws on ethnographic material to analyse how unemployed youth create work in the private educational sector. It shows how a set of educated young men, who moved from rural areas to a north Indian city to find work, are seeking to create jobs after an extended period of unemployment. Having attended coaching clinics and private tuition centres to prepare for white‐collar jobs, they draw on the experience, knowledge, and skills they have gained to create work in those same institutions. They do so by running errands and creating services for institutions, as well as undertaking administrative duties and teaching classes. Our main argument is that young men creatively engage with notions of enterprise to make an income and acquire a measure of respect. Studies of enterprise culture and neoliberal subjectivity formation often emphasise how individuals shore up their own value by competing with others and promoting their own interests. But we highlight how youth also maintain their value by making sense of their strategies in terms of assisting other young people. At the same time, however, their practises work to reproduce gender norms and class inequalities.