The In-securitisation of Youth in the South and East Mediterranean

Murphy, Emma

Abstract

The securitisation of youth as a social category has been well-documented. For the South and East Mediterranean (SEM) countries, moral panics over demographic youth bulges, Islamist radicalisation and protracted conflicts have placed youth centre-stage as a threat to the security of states and societies. Rejecting such assertions as themselves being what Foucault might have termed ‘technologies of power’ in a neoliberal order, and instead taking a critical approach to security, the spotlight is turned towards youth themselves as the referent object of study. This reveals the multidimensional hyper-precarity and insecuritisation of young peoples’ lives which derive from that same neoliberal economic order and the political structures that sustain it in the SEM countries. The finding resonates with other studies of new, insecure, formats for adulthood in Africa and suggests that we should look at the insecurity of young people today to understand global neoliberal futures in countries beyond the post-industrial ‘core’.

Citation

Murphy, E. (2018). The In-securitisation of Youth in the South and East Mediterranean. The International Spectator, 53(2), 21-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2018.1454084

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 6, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 29, 2018
• Publication Date: May 29, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 29, 2019
• Journal: International Spectator
• Print ISSN: 0393-2729
• Electronic ISSN: 1751-9721
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 21-37
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2018.1454084
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1363518