Subcultural capital and the female \u27underclass\u27? A feminist response to an underclass discourse

It is often argued that economically marginalized young women occupy a school and post-school underclass, and that this underclass has a particular culture associated with it. Such views provoke a profound ambivalence in many of those who work with such young people. On the one hand, they are anxious to acknowledge the culture of the communities to which marginalized young women belong. On the other hand, they wish to avoid the pernicious implications of underclass theories that suggest disadvantage is the result of the culture and values of marginalized social groupings. This paper offers an overview and feminist critique of the structuralist and cultural or behaviourist strands of underclass theory. It focuses particularly on the work of Charles Murray, a major proponent of the culturalist perspective and the representation of the single mother in this discourse. It then considers how a less punitive theorization of marginalized cultures might be achieved by drawing on and adapting concepts from Pierre Bourdieu\u27s sociology. The paper reflects on how such ideas might serve as a way of exploring how gender impacts on the forms of cultural capital available to young women in difficult economic circumstances. <br /

Managing youth transitions in the network society

Castells argues that society is being reconstituted according to the global logic of networks. This paper discusses the ways in which a globalised network logic transforms the nature of young people&rsquo;s transitions from school to work. Furthermore, the paper explores the ways in which this network logic restructures the manner in which youth transitions are managed via the emergence of a Vocational Education and Training (VET) agenda in Australian post compulsory secondary schooling. It also notes the implications of the emergence of the &lsquo;network society&rsquo; for locality generally and for selected localities specific to the research upon which this paper is based. It suggests that schools represent nodes in a range of VET and other networks, and shows how schools and other agencies in particular localities mobilise their expertise to construct such networks. These networks are networked, funded and regulated at various levels&mdash;regionally, nationally and globally. But, they are also facilitated by personal networking opportunities and capacities. The paper also points to the ways in which the &lsquo;refexivity chances&rsquo; of young people are shaped by this network logic&mdash;a situation that generates new forms of responsibility, for schools and teachers, with regard to the management of youth transitions.<br /

Self-representations of international women postgraduate students in the global university \u27Contact Zone\u27

This article explores some aspects of the role of race and gender in shaping women postgraduate students\u27 experience of intercultural study. It focuses on various social and cultural aspects of their sojourn. These were suggested by data from two small pilot research projects investigating the experiences of two cohorts of international women postgraduate students, the one studying in an Australian university and the other, a Canadian. The authors focus particularly on the intersections between the students\u27 representation of themselves as women and the way they see themselves represented by their host cultures. In other words, they are interested in the students\u27 understandings of themselves as \u27other\u27, and how this impacts on their representations of \u27self\u27. The authors suggest that these representations reflect a process of negotiation of identity that occurs in what they call the globalising university \u27contact zone\u27. The concept of contact zones derives from post-colonial theory. A further goal of this article, then, is to examine how such data appear when viewed from a post-colonial perspective. <br /

The global corporate curriculum and the young cyberflâneur as global citizen

Contents: Introduction: youth, mobility, and identity / Nadine Dolby and Fazal Rizvi -- New times, new identities -- The global corporate curriculum and the young cyberfleneur as global citizen / Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen -- Shoot the elephant: antagonistic identities, neo-marxist nostalgia, and the remorselessly vanishing past / Cameron McCarthy and Jennifer Logue -- New textual worlds: young people and computer games / Catherine Beavis -- Diasporic youth: rethinking borders and boundaries in the new modernity -- Consuming difference: stylish hybridity, diasporic identity, and the politics of culture / Michael Giardina -- Diasporan moves: African Canadian youth and identity formation / Jennifer Kelly -- Popular culture and recognition: narratives of youth and Latinidad / Angharad Valdivia -- Mobile students in liquid modernity: negotiating the politics of transnational identities / Parlo Singh and Catherine Doherty -- Youth and the global context: transforming us where we live -- The children of liberalization: youth agency and globalization in India / Ritty Lukose -- Youth cultures of consumption in Johannesburg / Sarah Nuttall -- Identities for neoliberal times: constructing enterprising selves in an American suburb / Peter Demerath and Jill Lynch -- Disciplining &quot;Generation M&quot;: the paradox of creating a &quot;local&quot; national identity in an era of &quot;global&quot; flows / Aaron Koh -- Marginalization, identity formation, and empowerment: youth\u27s struggles for self and social justice / David Quijada

Skin pedagogies and abject bodies

How does the beauty industry &lsquo;narrate the skin&rsquo;? What does it teach women from different cultural groups&nbsp;about the female body? How does skin function as a site where female subjection and abjection are produced and reproduced? In this paper we examine the skin industry pointing to its extreme commodification of the female body and to the inexcusable pressure this places on females of most age and cultural groups.We focus on two examples. Firstly, we show what the skin industry teaches girls and women about both their skin colour &lsquo;problems&rsquo; and desirable practices of whitening and, secondarily, tanning. Secondly, we consider what the cosmetic surgery industry teaches us about female bodily &lsquo;imperfections&rsquo; linked to certain ethnic and racial groups and the necessary &lsquo;remedies&rsquo;. Overall we show how the socio-cultural normalization of perfect skin is a product of a range of contemporary and enduring social and cultural forces overlain by complex pedagogies of power, expertise and affect

Education in the age of uncertainty: an eagle\u27s eye-view

&nbsp;How are we to educate young people of, and for, these times in a way which takes into account the existential and moral dilemmas of our age? We argue that the current education system fails to address the full implications of historical change in relation to ethics and equity. In what follows, we offer some ways of describing and theorising contemporary life in an age of uncertainty. We offer it as a knowledge base from which teachers, principals and policy makers might draw in creating new morally and ethically sound policy discourses. We follow with some new frameworks for helping students to deal with the altered context of moral and political life