Youth under construction: the United Nations’ representations of youth in the global conversation on the post-2015 development agenda

As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, youth have been ushered into the United Nation's decision-making processes for global development in the post-2015 era with a sense of uncontested urgency. Through the “global conversation” – a large scale participatory process involving consultations with youth and other groups – participation has featured prominently in the making of the post-2015 global development agenda. Using discursive analysis of reports produced on the global conversation, we argue that the UN is reconstructing youth as a social category and identity through such processes. We also conclude that by constructing youth as “asset”, “risk” and “good citizens in the making”, the UN seeks to draw young people into global development primarily as subjects of neoliberalism.