Playing the game? Young people ‘at risk’ of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) and their investment in education

This paper explores how young people identified as ‘at risk’ of not being integrated into education, employment or training orientate themselves towards the education system in England during their final years of school. These years can have long-term consequences for future engagement with the labour market, but not every young person is equally positioned to invest in them. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study of 81 young people aged 14–16 in England who were vulnerable to becoming NEET, the paper argues that Bourdieu’s oft-overlooked concept of ‘illusio’ offers a novel way to understand the complex relationships participants have with their schooling. Comparing the field of education to a ‘game’ helps to think through the ease and difficulty with which young people ‘at risk’ of becoming NEET invest in its ‘stakes’ and unpack their beliefs about whether it is worth ‘playing’ even when they feel out of kilter with its rules. Overall, the paper elucidates the tensions between the young people’s motivations to engage in their schooling and their struggles to enact this engagement in the ways that the education system expects of them.