Youth, work and global capitalism: new directions

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper lays the groundwork for a research agenda on the formation of young people as workers, and therefore as subjects that are produced, valorised and devalorised within transnational movements of capital and labour. Theoretical development in the study of youth and work takes place primarily through the study of biographical movements through the labour markets of the global north. This agenda has marginalised the role that young people play in the dynamics of labour and value in changing industries, and the transformation of youth labour forces in the global South. In this context, this paper explores the valorisation and devalorisation of youth subjectivities as part of processes of labour force formation within the diverse spaces of contemporary global capitalism. The paper shows how changes in the nature of labour forces transform the nature of youth, which is characterised by new productive capacities through becoming a part of economic change. In this, the paper suggests a future agenda focused on how youth subjectivities are formed within the dynamics of labour, value and production in a global context, and therefore offers a new agenda beyond the contemporary focus on transitions in the global north.