Abstract In 2015, the Government of British Columbia (BC), Canada, reversed a long-standing mandate to provide tuition-free Adult Basic Education (ABE) to all adults. Drawing upon internal government policy documents and inter- and intra-ministerial communications obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) tools, key policy documents, social media commentary, and documentation from protest events, the authors adopt an interpretive stance to re-tell this policy moment. Through their analysis, the authors observe struggles on behalf of government actors to adopt a coherent ‘policy story’ to legitimise the withdrawal of state resources for the education of marginalised citizens, falling back upon a Victorian era desert-based discourse. The study provides insights into the durability of deservingness discourses and the improvisational nature of neoliberal policy making.

中文翻译：

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那个（不应该）成年人：检查不列颠哥伦比亚省的成人基础教育政策

摘要2015年，加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省政府取消了一项长期任务，即向所有成年人提供免学费的成人基础教育（ABE）。作者利用政府内部政策文件以及通过信息自由（FOI）工具获得的部际和部际沟通，关键政策文件，社交媒体评论以及抗议活动的文件，作者采用了解释性立场来重述该政策。片刻。通过他们的分析，作者观察到代表政府角色进行的斗争，他们采取了连贯的“政策故事”，以合法化撤回为边缘化公民提供教育的国家资源，而这种做法又回到了维多利亚时代基于沙漠的论述。