Downward Mobility and the Individualization of Youth Struggle: Girls as Public Pedagogy

Abstract

Economic recovery since the Great Recession of 2008–09 has been slow, and youth have felt particular and acute effects of this era of economic decline. This article examines the downward mobility contemporary youth are experiencing and assesses the rise of creative employment as a result of both the evaporation of permanent full-time work and a shift in youth values. Analyzing the television series Girls as an example of public pedagogy, this article investigates how contemporary economic issues involving youth are both highlighted and erased in public consciousness and considers the policy ramifications of this minimization of youth struggle.