Structural unemployment and its effects: There is always a reflexive response

Abstract

A poststructuralist perspective on unemployment is discussed to include a reflexive interplay between harsh economic "realities" and conscious decision-making. Through an example of an individual story it is argued that objective economic knowledge is often complicated by what people do with it. In this case the dominant economic discourse had penetrated the consciousness of a young man who was unemployed. Opening a conversation on the internalised effects of this discourse enabled a shift in response. Enabling consideration of
the dominant discourse and facilitating such shifts in response are suggested as the focus of educational practice.