Vulnerability and the neo-liberal youth citizen: a view from Australia

This article develops a critical discourse analysis of Australian youth and community policies, examined through a discussion of theoretical debates about citizenship and vulnerability. Informed by a Foucauldian genealogical approach, it explores citizenship, not in terms of rights and universal categories, but in terms of relational, situated and dividing practices. Two major relationships are examined: the relationship between local communities and citizens, including the relationship between space and citizenship; and the relational construction of virtuous and vulnerable citizens. Vulnerability can refer to negative difference and weakness and it can denote a compassionate disposition and openness to difference. It is argued that in neo-liberal policy discourses vulnerability becomes tied to a ‘conversion narrative’ that renders social–structural marginalisation an individual responsibility and re-inscribes developmental explanations of social exclusion. This analysis of Australian policy discourses opens up questions regarding transnational citizenship and vulnerability that warrant further comparative and empirical investigation; and it invites a rethinking of the theoretical framing of youth citizenship, which has implications for conceptualising and conducting comparative youth studies in education.