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A Genealogy of Employability Skills, Innovation and Enterprise

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A Genealogy of Employability Skills, Innovation and Enterprise The Problem of Youth Unemployment in a De-Industrialising City: A Genealogy of Employability Skills, Innovation and Enterprise A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Meave Allanah Leigh Noonan BA (Hons), Deakin University Bachelor of Nursing, Deakin University School of Education College of Design and Social Context RMIT University November 2019 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Name: Meave Noonan Date: 15/11/2019 ii Acknowledgements To begin, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Traditional Custodians of the land on which my research was conducted, the Wadawurrung, Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin nation. The city of Geelong is the focus of much of my research, and is the place where I was born, grew up, and currently live. It is a place that the original inhabitants of this area, the Wadawurrung people, named ‘Djillong’. This project would not have been possible without the guidance, support and encouragement of my supervisors, Professor Peter Kelly, Dr. Seth Brown and Associate Professor Geoff Shacklock. Doing a PhD has taken me to all kinds of new and interesting places, literally and figuratively. To my supervisors, thank you for making this amazing adventure possible, and for pushing me out of my comfort zone at various points. Your thoughtful and generous guidance and feedback has allowed me to see the project through. To my family and friends. To my parents, Susan and Murray, thanks for your unstinting love and support. Thanks Dad for comments and constructive feedback on chapter drafts. To Goulash, thanks for buoying me up with furry snuggles on those long days at the computer. To Elisa and Jess, thanks for much-needed emotional support and comic relief. To my friends and colleagues in the School of Education and UNESCO UNEVOC at RMIT University: James Goring, Dr. Diego Carbajo, Dr. Sandra González Durán, Garry Argent, Chunyan Zhang, Matthew Barker, Sher Rahmat Khan, Mir Shah, Javed Anwar, Alamgir Yousufzai, Roz Ward, Dr. Emily Gray, and Dr. Shane Duggan. I have benefitted immensely from our conversations and camaraderie, and I hope they continue into the future. To Anne-Marie Ryan, Dr. Jude Walker and the team at the Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network: thank you for welcoming me into the GRLLEN team for a short while – my research is richer for it. To Andrea and Maria at Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library, and Caroline at the Geelong Heritage Centre: thank you for so generously donating your time and effort to helping me locate sources, and for so graciously accommodating my whims when I would walk in unannounced. In its early stages, this project was also shaped by conversations with Tim Gooden, then-Secretary of Geelong Trades Hall Council, and Louise Johnson, Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University. Parts of Chapter 3 and Chapter 7 of this thesis have been developed into a journal article, ‘Young people and the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of “enterprise”: stories from a “Rust Belt” city’. This journal article was co-authored with Peter Kelly and was published in the Journal of Youth Studies (Noonan & Kelly 2019). iii Contents Declaration ............................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. iii List of figures ...................................................................................................................................... vii Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Preface ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction Employability Skills, Innovation and Enterprise: The Solution to the Problem of Youth Unemployment? ....................................................................................................................... 6 Youth unemployment, ‘Rust Belt’ communities, class relations ............................................ 10 Defining the terms ‘employability skills’, ‘innovation’, and ‘enterprise’ .............................. 13 Employability skills ................................................................................................................... 14 Innovation ................................................................................................................................... 17 Enterprise .................................................................................................................................... 19 Critical thinking, capabilities and creativity .......................................................................... 22 Key objectives of this project ....................................................................................................... 23 Structure of this thesis ................................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Part One Neoliberalism, capitalism, ‘Rust Belt’ spaces and youth unemployment: A genealogical ethos .............................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter One What is Genealogy? .................................................................................................... 28 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 28 The ‘history of the present’ as a critical and effective history ................................................. 30 Archaeology and genealogy in the Foucauldian methodological ‘toolbox’ .......................... 31 Some key features of a genealogical approach .......................................................................... 33 Ask ‘how’ rather than ‘why’ questions .................................................................................. 33 Mapping the apparatus (‘dispositif’) ....................................................................................... 33 Look for contingencies instead of causes ............................................................................... 35 The ‘Three Es’: episodes, examples, effectiveness ................................................................... 36 Problematising the representation of social ‘problems’: Foucauldian methods in the analysis of policy ........................................................................................................................... 37 Developing a methodological ‘toolbox’ for doing a genealogy of ‘employability skills’, ‘innovation’ and ‘enterprise’ ........................................................................................................ 40 Selection of an archive .............................................................................................................. 41 Content analysis and critical discourse analysis .................................................................... 42 Situational maps in genealogical research.............................................................................. 43 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 45 Chapter Two Globalisation, ‘neoliberal’ capitalism, and youth labour markets in the 21st century ................................................................................................................................................. 46 iv Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Space, place and global flows ...................................................................................................... 47 Neoliberal capitalism ..................................................................................................................... 50 Digital disruption and the coming of the robots ........................................................................ 52 Youth labour market change in the neoliberal era ..................................................................... 56 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Chapter Three Geelong: a ‘Rust Belt’ locale .................................................................................. 63 Introduction
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