‘NEET’ believers? An analysis of ‘belief’ on an urban housing estate

Abstract

This article explores the impact that the experience of deep-seated social exclusion amongst unemployed white young men on a large urban housing estate in Birmingham, UK has on the ways in which they talk about identity, meaning and ‘belief’. Arising from detailed ethnographic fieldwork, the article forwards an analysis of current debates about youth social exclusion and the deployment of the acronym ‘NEET’ with reference to these young men and others like them across the UK. Drawing upon conversations between the author and young men during fieldwork, the article seeks to bridge the gap between social-science-based examinations of youth social exclusion and theological analyses of youth spiritualities to critically interrogate current debates about the nature of ‘belief’ and ‘belonging’. In particular, the article raises a key critical question: is the word ‘belief’ ‘fit for purpose’ when considering the experience of socially excluded young men on urban housing estates?

Keywords:

• NEET
• belief
• urban youth
• social exclusion

Notes

 1. Elizabeth Olson, Giselle Vincett (both Edinburgh University), Peter Hopkins (Newcastle University and Rachel Pain (Durham University), ‘Marginalized spiritualities: Faith and religion among young people in socially deprived Britain’, 2009–2010 AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society project in Glasgow and Manchester.

 2. See http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a = 7&b = 293447&c = B36+8SL&d = 141&e = 10&g = 371324&i = 1001 × 1003 × 1004&m = 0&r = 0&s = 1302878794984&enc = 1&dsFamilyId = 2307 (accessed April 15, 2011).

 3. See http://www.archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/seu (accessed April 10, 2011).

 4. See http://ebriefing.bgfl.org/content/resources/resource.cfm?id = 8153&key = &zz = 20110322115248679&zs = n Birmingham City Council, Unemployment Briefing, March 2011 (accessed April 18, 2011). The Bromford estate forms part of the Hodge Hill local government ward. The Indices of Deprivation are published by the UK government department of Communities and Local Government.

 5. The term ‘Status Zero’ was probably first used in 1993 as part of a study in South Glamorgan, Wales led by the sociologist and specialist in ‘youth studies’ Howard Williamson.

 6. See http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/STR/d000987/osr05-2011.pdf, Department for Education quarterly labour force survey for the fourth quarter of 2010, February 24, 2011 (accessed April 17, 2011). In February 2011, 15.6% (938,000) of 16–24-year olds in the UK were NEET.

 7. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/24/neets-number-climbs-record-high (accessed January 4, 2012).

 8. The term ‘broken Britain’ has characterised the social policy of the British Conservative party since its use by David Cameron in the Glasgow East by-election in July 2008 and the publication of Conservative social policy initiatives in June 2008. It has more recently been contrasted by Cameron's idea of an active ‘big society’. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7471370.stm. See too Blond (2010). For examples of media representation of NEETs, see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-389799/Teen-drifters-cost-taxpayers-20billion.html#ixzz1JngFz67E (June 9, 2006); http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6439923/Quarter-of-care-children-end-up-as-neets.html (October 26, 2009); http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/8875186.Alarm_over_Bradford_district_s_11_000__Neets (February 25, 2011); http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Nursery-neets-struggle-at-school-13829.xnf?BodyFormat, all accessed on April 17, 2011.

 9. Semiotics has its roots in the linguistic structuralism of Ferdinand de Saussure and revolves around a process of signification that constructs connections between signs or signifiers within a text and the experience or idea that the signifier illuminates, the signified.

10. These short quotations were all drawn from conversations with young men on the Bromford estate between December 2010 and June 2011, with the exception of the final quotation that is taken from a ‘grime’ rap track ‘So What's Going On These Days?’ by Tek9, which he wrote and uploaded himself onto YouTube during 2010. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = ACN7mlYrlZ0.

11. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9385015.stm (accessed May 3, 2011).

12. The word ‘bag-head’ is a reference to people who are addicted to crack cocaine.

13. 13 ‘Grime’ is an indigenous UK form of rap music that emerged out of British housing estates and the UK Garage and dance music scene in the early twenty-first century.

14. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = ACN7mlYrlZ0 (accessed May 5, 2011). Tek9 wrote this track in 2009.

15. All of the images in this article are photographs taken by myself on the Bromford estate between December 2010 and June 2011.