Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi Cite as/ Atıf: Göze, F. E. & Yılmaz, E. (2021). Neoliberalizm, genç işsizliği ve sosyal güvensizlik bağlamında sinemada gençliğin temsili: American Honey. Turkish Studies - Social, 16(4), 1509-1532. https://dx.doi.org/10.47356/TurkishStudies.51525 Received/Geliş: 26 May/Mayıs 2021 Checked by plagiarism software Accepted/Kabul: 25 August/Ağustos 2021 Published/Yayın: 31 August/Ağustos 2021 CC BY-NC 4.0 Neoliberalizm, Genç İşsizliği ve Sosyal Güvensizlik Bağlamında Sinemada Gençliğin Temsili : American Honey Representation of Youth in Cinema in the Context of Neoliberalism, Youth Unemployment and Youth Precariousness: American Honey Filiz Erdemir Göze * - Erdinç Yılmaz ** Abstract: The neoliberal economic system, which has been globally effective since the 1980s, has changed the lives of young people as it has touched the lives of many individuals. While the welfare states that rose after the Second World War glorified stable, predictable and permanent employment, it is seen that the economic mechanism built by neoliberalism is expressed with risks and threats when it comes to young people. The economic system that evolved with the spread of neoliberalism has created a growing inequality in wealth distribution against young people. This inequality manifests itself in the rise of youth unemployment and precariousness in both developed and developing countries. Nowadays, in order for the economic structure to gain the highest level of benefit, young people's options are limited and it is difficult for them to experience the transition to a healthy adulthood. This situation has been reflected in cinema, which is accepted as an art closely related with reality. Cinema, which reproduces the realities of various dimensions of life, frequently refers to the positioning forms of the individual within the dominant economic structure. In this context, the main purpose of the study is to examine how the restrictive effect of neoliberal economic structure on the lives of young people is handled in the reality of cinema. At this point, the movie American Honey (Arnold, 2016), which contains meanings about the relationship between structure and youth tendencies, has been analyzed in a qualitative approach with political-economy analysis. In the analysis, it was concluded that the labor, bodies and personal stories of the young people in the film were exploited in the interests of the economic structure within its reality full of threats of unemployment and precariousness. Structured Abstract: Today, young people experience the transition to adulthood struggling with the limiting influence of economic mechanisms to a bigger extend compared to the 1960s, when the presence of the welfare states was felt intensely. A lot of developed and developing countries tend to approach youth as a vulnerable class, one that needs to be empowered. Therefore, many charitable foundations, national and non- * Doç. Dr., Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi, İletişim Fakültesi, Radyo, Televizyon ve Sinema Bölümü Assoc. Prof. Dr., Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Faculty of Communication, Radio, Television and Cinema Department 0000-0001-7665-1537 filizerdemir50@gmail.com ** Gazi Üniversitesi, Radyo, Televizyon ve Sinema Anabilim Dalı Doktora Öğrencisi Gazi University, Radio, Television and Cinema Department PHD Candidate 0000-0003-1693-3481 ylmzrdnc@gmail.com