Populism on young people's non-conforming behaviour as othering

Abstract

The chapter discusses populism as it applies to making sense of young people’s deviant behaviour in public spaces and schools in Finland. It analyses populist utterances as tightly intertwined with the hegemony struggles between the economic elites supporting neoliberal ideals and the social democratic welfare state vision. In this context, the mechanism of ‘othering’ is commonly used to establish and express a moral boundary between those who deserve moral and solidary treatment and those who do not. By othering, essentially complex societal problems, such as those related to immigration or school discipline, are simplified as problems of some individuals or groups who are not seen as deserving to be treated as respectable citizens. The process of othering is exemplified by recent examples from public discussions on problematic youth behaviour.