TRANSCENDING THE “STRAWBERRY” LABEL: DESTIGMATISATION STRATEGIES FOR CONTESTING YOUTH STEREOTYPES AMID LABOUR MARKET PRECARITY

Abstract

This thesis examines how young people in Singapore respond to the “strawberry generation” label amid current labour market precarity. The label describes post-1980s youths as lacking resilience and bruising easily like strawberries in the face of social pressures. In-depth interviews with 10 college-educated youths aged between 23 and 27 formed the basis of data collection. Drawing on Peter Kelly’s essays on youth at-risk discourses as well as Michèle Lamont’s research on destigmatisation strategies and boundary reconstruction, the thesis arrives at two sets of findings. First, youths express indignation towards the label, reasoning that it downplays the multiplicity of structural strains bearing down upon them. Second, to dispel claims of their inferiority, youths draw boundaries between themselves and the older generation along three frames: resilience, entrepreneurialism and empathy. They reframe the negative traits associated with the label—inability to work hard, impulsivity and oversensitivity—as favourable qualities needed to thrive amid precarity: ability to adapt and “work smart”, courage to capitalise on uncertainty, and empathy to effect positive social change, respectively. Mobilising such empowering frames enables youths to dissociate themselves from demeaning stereotypes and to establish at least a sense of equality with the older generation. Altogether, these findings aim to highlight the agency that individuals can possess during social and economic challenges. The findings also seek to problematise the individualisation of social problems, which has occurred increasingly as a result of neoliberal forces.