This thesis explores the ways in which the ‘at-risk’ designation of marginalized and disadvantaged youth within youth-serving agencies contributes to a program of governance within a neoliberalized welfare state. I argue that while there is considerable resistance to the risk designation within youth-serving agencies, officially accepting funding for programming designed to target at-risk youth continues to individualize the troubles youth face and responsibilizes youth to become their own risk managers. Through these structural funding constraints, youth-serving agency staff inadvertently disseminates expert knowledges that validate the notion of ‘at-risk’ youth as a growing problem while legitimating the perspective that social problems can and should be addressed through individual treatment rather than social policy. This both disciplines youth to become better liberal subjects while leaving structural constraints unaddressed. I conclude with some examples of resistance that show promise of working outside of these technologies of governance.

This thesis explores the ways in which the ‘at-risk’ designation of marginalized and disadvantaged youth within youth-serving agencies contributes to a program of governance within a neoliberalized welfare state. I argue that while there is considerable resistance to the risk designation within youth-serving agencies, officially accepting funding for programming designed to target at-risk youth continues to individualize the troubles youth face and responsibilizes youth to become their own risk managers. Through these structural funding constraints, youth-serving agency staff inadvertently disseminates expert knowledges that validate the notion of ‘at-risk’ youth as a growing problem while legitimating the perspective that social problems can and should be addressed through individual treatment rather than social policy. This both disciplines youth to become better liberal subjects while leaving structural constraints unaddressed. I conclude with some examples of resistance that show promise of working outside of these technologies of governance.

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This essay discusses the impact of neoliberalism on the US American foreign politics. It addresses the possible strategy of America on a global scale, always focusing on neoliberal forces in America that are behind the official political decisions that are made in Washington. The essay also discusses the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here, there is more than what the eye can see, or rather what the public is meant to see. Strong economic powers influence the war in the Middle East and try to bring a new world order upon the region, by implanting democracy, neoliberalism and absolute market openness. This discussion is done through a comparison of various sources, including books and scientific articles, dealing with geography, economy and politics. The outcome of this essay includes worrying facts about the future of globalism, neoliberalism and democracy, as power more and more shifts towards private corporations and banks, away from democratic state apparatus.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Anthropology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 382-412).

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/03/12). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2008. / Vita: p. 81. Thesis director: Peter P. Mandaville. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 2, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80). Also issued in print.

This thesis explores the ways in which community development in the context of local government in Scotland has been transformed by new managerialism and neoliberalisation. Community development has traditionally been understood in Scottish local authorities as an approach to working within those sections of local government responsible for Community Education (CE) and Community Learning and Development (CLD) and consequently this thesis also considers the impact of new managerialism and neoliberalisation on CE/CLD. Methodologically, this work is informed by ethnographic research undertaken in three local authorities. In addition, it draws upon a theoretical approach to neoliberalism and new managerialism influenced by Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and governmentality theory. The concept of neoliberalism is at the heart of this work and in the context of local government neoliberalism is based upon a number of themes; first it is interconnected with an economic policy of austerity which has resulted in unprecedented cuts to local government budgets. In addition, private sector and civil society organisations take on a greater role in providing public goods and services and in this context the role of local government becomes that of purchaser rather than provider of services. Neoliberalisation also involves the introduction of techniques and practices associated with new public management or new managerialism. Moreover, these techniques are influenced by practices and values drawn from the world of business and they have been introduced in local government in order to make local authorities more entrepreneurial and competitive. I argue that the impact of neoliberalisation and new managerialism on community development has been transformative. In particular, reforms related to austerity have hollowed out community development as an ‘approach to working’ within integrated CE/CLD services. In this changing context practice is increasingly defined by the priorities of government and new fields of work have emerged with youth work and adult education shaped by employability and community development framed as an approach to working within those sections of local government responsible for Community Planning and Economic Regeneration. Community development emerges in this new environment as a way of working which can (in theory) reduce public expenditure and this has resulted in its methodologies – participation and community engagement, being used by local states as a means to involve communities in the everyday management of local austerity programmes. In addition, community development approaches are also drawn upon to encourage community based organisations to acquire public assets and become new players in the burgeoning public services delivery market. New public management techniques have been introduced across the field which include computerised management information systems, workplans and team plans with quantifiable targets and measurable outcomes, audits and appraisals. The introduction of these techniques correlate well with austerity and I suggest that their aim is twofold; decrease public expenditure whilst making professionals more productive in terms of delivering government policy. I argue that traditional professionals are being de-professionalised especially as their roles become bureaucratised as a consequence of new managerialism. Yet, rather than the death of a profession I suggest that professional practices have also been reconfigured and adapted to meet the requirements of the new times. From this perspective professionals are re-professionalised by new managerialism and neoliberalisation and one of the main propositions I put forward is that a neoliberal model of community development has emerged which has produced a new professional subject who has learned to think and acts in ways shaped by neoliberalisation. This analysis is indebted to Foucault who saw in neoliberalism not only an economic policy but also a new rationality for governing human beings.

This thesis explores whether or not it is possible to positively inflect – via digital means – people’s orientations toward nature through connecting their duration to the time of animals. The thesis opens with an overview of the contemporary environmental crisis, mapping related significant discourses, events and responses from the early 1960s onward. In this regard, after thematizing the relatively ineffective global institutional response to the environmental crisis to date – in spite of both consistent criticisms proffered by a range of stakeholders and widely available information on the scope of current environmental degradation – the lack of any concerted effort to deal with this issue is accounted for in terms of the dimensions of what Kilbourne, Beckmann and Thelen refer to as the ‘Dominant Social Paradigm’ (DSP). However, it is argued that of these dimensions, the technological dimension is most amenable to pro-environmental inflection, particularly through recent developments within information technology. That is, despite the latter being the privileged technology of neoliberalism, and despite the environmental cost of its current material infrastructure, it is also highly unlikely that societies will abandon their dependence on information technology in the near future. Given this, the importance of considering how such technology can be harnessed to positively re-orientate users’ perceptions of the natural world, in a way that also avoids the pitfall of technophilia, is advanced. In terms of this, both positive and negative appraisals of information technology by prominent new media theorists are discussed, and information technology is put forward as a tool that remains indeterminate in terms of its use. After this, and with a view to exploring how the technological dimension of the DSP might possibly be inflected in a pro-environmental manner, the thesis draws on the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari who promote desire and difference outside the ambit of capitalism, particularly through desubjectivation in relation to their concept of ‘becoming-animal.’ Finally, after dealing in addition with some potential theoretical challenges to the application of Deleuze’s ideas within the digital realm, focus shifts to three contemporary digital artefacts which have the capacity, albeit to varying degrees, to facilitate a becoming-animal. In this regard, a distinction is made between those artefacts that precipitate first-, second- and third-order hybrid durationality, and it is argued that the latter category presents the greatest promise of interfacing the time of humans with the time of animals.

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