The discovery of an Australian ''juvenile underclass'

Abstract

This article critically explores contemporary debates around the discovery of the 'new underclass'. Debates about poverty, employment and inequity, however, ought to raise a number of important questions. One question relates to the status of the observations made and apparent factual nature of the 'discovery' of 'the underclass' by empirical research. Another question underclass talk should raise, but rarely does, is the relationship between state power and those living in poverty, or what Foucault referred to as the 'diffusion of the agencies of governance'. This article suggests that 'the discovery' of a new 'juvenile underclass' draws on two long-standing discursive traditions which centre on 'the adolescent' and 'the poor'. Equally 'left' and 'right' deployments of the underclass theme suggest both a lack of reflexivity and a greater reliance on assumptions and interests characteristic of the left and right rather than any particular respect for what may actually be 'out there'. Theoretical reflexivity suggests that amongst other things, good social theory can think of the effects that experts who claim to know 'the underclass' have on those who are marginalised and who live in poverty .