Youth and unemployment: perceptions from a neoliberal context

Abstract

The increasing flexibilization of working relations, endorsed by the process of productive restructuring, has resulted in both labour precarization and unemployment growth, especially among the young people, which was aggravated by the rise of neoliberalism as a political and an economic project. Furthermore, an ideological process, supported by the neoliberal logic, aims to justify and normalize an uncertain and insecure scenario through specific practices and speeches, since the unemployed themself are pointed to as the main responsible for their condition. Therefore, through qualitative analysis, this research aims to comprehend how the young workers experience, understand, and describe unemployment, considering their own experiences and personal references in order to observe how that condition affects their subjectivity, health, and other sociability aspects. A case study will be performed at the Workers' House located in the city of São Carlos, a public institution that offers services related to professional relocation, including labor intermediation. This research will be mainly conducted through interviews supported by a semi-structured guide. (AU)