Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities
This paper charts the development of young people’s self-making in neoliberal capitalism, specifying relationships between their self-making and susceptibility to mental health difficulties as they make their way in neoliberal market society. While neoliberal capitalism provides young people with op...
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Cultural Studies Association
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Lateral |
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| Online Access: | https://csalateral.org/section/political-economy-and-the-arts/young-people-self-making-neoliberal-capitalism-butler-coward/ |
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| author | Stephen M. Butler Nathaniel Coward |
| author_facet | Stephen M. Butler Nathaniel Coward |
| author_sort | Stephen M. Butler |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper charts the development of young people’s self-making in neoliberal capitalism, specifying relationships between their self-making and susceptibility to mental health difficulties as they make their way in neoliberal market society. While neoliberal capitalism provides young people with opportunities to pursue and experiment with diverse identities and ways of being in the world, it also structures their self-making opportunities, by which charting selfhood becomes fertile ground for internalizing mental health problems. Our paper argues that the cultural imperative on young people to attain social status and success in the competitive and achievement-oriented forms of life that inhabit neoliberal capitalism demands that they curate and commodify highly desirable forms of selfhood that can never quite be realized. Endlessly failing to satisfy the conditions of selfhood in neoliberal capitalism, exhausted by the injunction to be more than they have already achieved, young people are socialized into increasingly complex and pressurized neoliberal capitalist cultures which challenge their ability to fulfill both their extrinsic desires for status and identity enhancement and their intrinsic needs for relatedness, belongingness, and self-worth. To conclude our paper, we summarize our main arguments and make some recommendations for promoting a more beneficial relationship between young people and the culture of neoliberal capitalism. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e8911635e7d445049a94931ee097c247 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2469-4053 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Cultural Studies Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Lateral |
| spelling | doaj-art-e8911635e7d445049a94931ee097c2472025-08-20T02:40:11ZengCultural Studies AssociationLateral2469-40532024-12-0113210.25158/L13.2.10Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and OpportunitiesStephen M. Butler0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2072-5338Nathaniel Coward 1University of Prince Edward IslandUniversity of Prince Edward IslandThis paper charts the development of young people’s self-making in neoliberal capitalism, specifying relationships between their self-making and susceptibility to mental health difficulties as they make their way in neoliberal market society. While neoliberal capitalism provides young people with opportunities to pursue and experiment with diverse identities and ways of being in the world, it also structures their self-making opportunities, by which charting selfhood becomes fertile ground for internalizing mental health problems. Our paper argues that the cultural imperative on young people to attain social status and success in the competitive and achievement-oriented forms of life that inhabit neoliberal capitalism demands that they curate and commodify highly desirable forms of selfhood that can never quite be realized. Endlessly failing to satisfy the conditions of selfhood in neoliberal capitalism, exhausted by the injunction to be more than they have already achieved, young people are socialized into increasingly complex and pressurized neoliberal capitalist cultures which challenge their ability to fulfill both their extrinsic desires for status and identity enhancement and their intrinsic needs for relatedness, belongingness, and self-worth. To conclude our paper, we summarize our main arguments and make some recommendations for promoting a more beneficial relationship between young people and the culture of neoliberal capitalism.https://csalateral.org/section/political-economy-and-the-arts/young-people-self-making-neoliberal-capitalism-butler-coward/capitalismidentityneoliberalismself-optimizationyouthyoung peopleself-makingmental health |
| spellingShingle | Stephen M. Butler Nathaniel Coward Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities Lateral capitalism identity neoliberalism self-optimization youth young people self-making mental health |
| title | Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities |
| title_full | Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities |
| title_fullStr | Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities |
| title_short | Young People’s Self-Making in Neoliberal Capitalism: Challenges and Opportunities |
| title_sort | young people s self making in neoliberal capitalism challenges and opportunities |
| topic | capitalism identity neoliberalism self-optimization youth young people self-making mental health |
| url | https://csalateral.org/section/political-economy-and-the-arts/young-people-self-making-neoliberal-capitalism-butler-coward/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stephenmbutler youngpeoplesselfmakinginneoliberalcapitalismchallengesandopportunities AT nathanielcoward youngpeoplesselfmakinginneoliberalcapitalismchallengesandopportunities |