Australian generation Ys: reading their futures through a neoliberal lens

This paper investigates the ways in which Generation Ys engage with, and take up, neoliberal discourse in considering their futures. It draws upon survey data completed by Year 12 students in a range of schools across the State of Queensland, Australia, and uses it to illuminate the power and pervasiveness of neoliberal discourse, and the 'willingness' of Gen Ys to embrace neoliberalism and its imperative of individualisation. It also employs this data as a means of demonstrating the young people's take-up of equal opportunity rhetoric. Furthermore, it illustrates the ways in which these young people come to exhibit the traits regularly associated with Gen Ys. Finally, the paper explores the implications of such research findings for these and other young people and signals considerations for those concerned with the education and well being of youth