Enterprise on the South Coast

This chapter explores the discourses of enterprise, uncovering the investment in this notion at EU, national and local levels of policy as a solution to youth unemployment. Enterprise emerges as both a driver of economic growth, as well as particular ‘mindset’ required of entreprenuers. Case studies of two different interventions on the South Coast that aim to increase youth enterprise reveal how different conceptions of risk and failure are intertwined with understandings of the young people’s resilience. The chapter demonstrates how these schemes utilised differing technologies of governance although both required young people to take on responsibility for creating their own jobs.