Governing pluralistic liberal democratic societies and metis knowledge: The problem of Indigenous unemployment

Abstract

High rates of unemployment among Indigenous Australians in comparison to non-Indigenous Australians have been rendered a public policy problem by successive Australian governments. The solutions are often coercive forms of neoliberal governance. However, where Indigenous people are driven by different motivations, ideas and aspirations in relation to work, Indigenous employment policies face the issue of epistemological dissonance. This article aims to contribute to understandings of unsuccessful Indigenous employment policy outcomes by introducing a new conceptualisation of policy and governance limitations and social action. An overview of governmentality literature is coupled with a review of the concept of metis knowledge – a form of know-how that comes from contextualised, practical experience – and its role in limiting the aims of governance. Indigenous employment policy that governs through pedagogical technologies applied to the Indigenous workforce demonstrates this limitation through its assumptions that the metis knowledge required to become ‘work-ready’ can be transferred unproblematically.