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The shape(s) of things to come

Youth work pasts, presents and futures

Filip CousséeHoward Williamson

Autonomy through Dependency – Histories of co-operation, conflict and innovation in youth work, 5th History Seminar, Espoo, Finland, 8-10 June 2014

• Barbara Wootton• US soldiers• Wobbling hands

• Arm around the shoulder and kick up the arse• I only do those things for young people that they cannot do by

virtue of their age

• We should approach our work with ‘an open mind, but not an empty one’ (Nancy MacDonald: The Graffiti Subculture)

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Preamble

Integrated Youth Policies?• The opposition to youth work from schools (Arni)• The ‘occasional attention’ to youth questions (Juha)• How hidden is the youth work curriculum? (Alastair)• Youth work as ‘loosely defined’ and ‘weakly structured’

• We need to think carefully about choosing our allies (Tania)• Those who successfully refused inappropriate alliances

had strong alliances in other ways • Youth development can be integrated and is cross-cutting

(Lwazi)

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Some memorable comments and observations (1)

The Magic Triangle• Who is setting the rules / defining the priorities? (Manfred)• An evolution of different configurations of actors and alliances

– never straightforward (Giuseppe)• Different stakeholders involved: balance of interests and

tensions – always a struggle• Governments are not interested in youth research; youth

organisations not interested in youth research; youth research is interested in dialogue with government (Bjorn)

• Vicious circle?• Whose knowledge counts? Who speaks for youth? The

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Some memorable comments and observations (2)

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Some memorable comments and observations (3)

• What are the ‘laws’ of youth work –goals/methods/standards & access ; and where do these ‘laws’ come from? (Marti)

• Alliances, actors, and the application of practice is always evolving – involving different combinations of research, policy and practice in development, delivery and management of youth work

Collaboration• Measuring the process: a contradiction in terms (Jon)• Animation socio-culturelle was defined against what went

before (social work, schooling) (Laurent/Marc)• Magic triangles are more like a bowl of spaghetti (Tim/Robyn)

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Some memorable comments and observations (4)Let them play, let them learn

• Why is ‘youth work’ so hard to describe and advocate for?• The complexity is only understood by insiders• Young people don’t go to institutions any more, they go

around them (Joyce)• Being young is not solely preparation for being old• Remember, in a group, we are all members (Konopka)• It’s all about learning… how to we put more emphasis on

playing? (Jan)• After reading everything about youth work, we (still) don’t

understand what we are talking about (Guy)

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Some memorable comments and observations (5)Love is in the Air / Succiety

• Youth is a time for a ‘second chance’ in development – what do I want, where do I want to go, who do I want to be?

• Youth workers support young people in the leading of life (Christian)

• Participation - from taking part to having a part (Guy)• Empowerment is not always enough to get young people

taking control of their lives beyond the youth work experience (Manfred)

• Perhaps there is more identity building through subcultures in countries like Estonia

• Young people sometimes just need information, a space and recognition (Alina)

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Some memorable comments and observations (6)

The Youth Academy• Different interpretations, perspectives, definitions and actions

• So much variance in what has been discussed• Challenges of reaching out to young people, given their

contemporary milieu and social media• Common struggle to include youth representatives and youth

voice into adult structures

• Learning is about ‘give and take’: What? So what? & Now what?

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Balancing ActsProbably the hardest job in the world

Balancing intervention with responseBalancing individual & societal expectationsBalancing leisure and educationBalancing the life led versus the life developedBalancing comfort zones and stretch zonesReconciling principles with pragmatismHolding the line

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Rehydration?

RelationshipsTrustProcessSpaceTime

TargetsOutcomesMeasurementPerformance

Changing youth work• From open & continuous provision to targeted and project work• From group work to individual work• From service to outcome• Why did this happen; and why did we let this happen?• What did WE do about it? Were we passive onlookers /

bystanders?• To what extent did we, do we, will we ‘bring more of an

activist spirit to youth work’?

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (1)

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (2)

Integrated youth policy• Youth work is too small and marginal to influence ’top-down’ broader youth policy• But youth work can help to explain and integrate youth policy effects on young people• ’Youth policy’* is essentially ’dis-integrated’: contradictory, incoherent, working in different directions, accessible to different groups of young peopleHave we, are we, will we continue to be focused on the wrong issue(s)?* The sum of significant government initiatives affecting young people’s lives (Laurent/Marc)

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (3)

Contextualisation and Control• Context is everything• Autonomy is always contingent on the dependencies that are chosen or imposed• Recurrent stories of sudden shifts in youth work definitions, objectives, support, focus and practice as governments and administrations changed (Iceland, Estonia, Australia, Northern Ireland)

What have, are, will be the relative significance of ’urbanisation’, (supra-national), national or local government responsibilities, macro, micro or meso influences...?

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Making it happen – the dynamics of youth (work) policy development and implementation

POLITICALDECISION & DRIVE decentralisation

DELIVERY

difficulties

DEBATE

dissent

DEVELOPMENT

direction

The criticality of political championship – but youth work and youth policy can START and STOP at many points

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (3)

Education partagée?• If youth work is a non-formal educational practice, how is it ’shared’ with formal education (schooling)?• ’Divided’ between primarily episteme and techne through formal education and training, and primarily phronesis through youth work?• Curriculum as a process of ’learning and teaching’, not a prescriptive framework of outcome expectations and practice requirements. The centrality of underpinning values.• And if youth work does not share with formal education, who does it share with (police, health, social work, counselling)?

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A curric-u-dial

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• Astray / a stray – looking for a home?

• Companion• Lover• Defender• Guide• Retriever

Youth work as a dogOccupying the interstitial space….?

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (4)

Youth research• Youth research (studies of young people) needs to (a) find a language with political effect, and (b) suggest meaningful and relevant alternatives to ineffective policies that blame young people for their own exclusion• What we need as well is youth policy research – studies of the social realities of youth life and the role of policy interventions and aspirations• The (under)reach of purposeful and positive ’youth policy’• The overreach of negative, regulatory and compensatory ’youth policy’

• Proving and Improving (Dale)… a difficult path• The challenge of combining and using different evidence

(Meiju)• Politicians listen to numbers, so we need numbers (Georg)• Youth work is not something you do, it is something you are

(Jon)• Uncertainty is crucial to our practice (Jon)

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Evaluation of youth work

Evaluation• Evaluation of what? [the forum / transit zone debate?]• The slide into individual attention when youth work is

essentially a group process and is concerned with the social position of groups of young people

• Why do we capitulate to this individualised focus?• And who defines the needs of young people? The

perspectives of young people about youth work are not sacred……?

• Should not youth workers be proactive in defining youth needs?

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Emergent themes & neglected questions (5)

• Monitoring, evaluation, (self-)assessment, performance management

• Value-Judgments NYB 1982 (Talk about Management series)• Stories and case studies/examples are important• Scaling up, policy transfer, implementation leakage• Karen Evans three ‘E’s• Evidence stops politicians doing even more stupid things• Personal and positional change (De Montfort research)• Evidence? Self-promotion and publicity• Perverse behaviour• Feedback loops• An act of faith, or an act of science?

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Evaluating Youth WorkHitting the target, missing the pointThe Emperor’s new clothes?

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The ‘youth work’ triangle

The aspirations

of public policy

The principles of youth work

Youth work and youth workers

The needs or wants of

young people

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Ambiguous terminologyA lack of ‘synergy in concepts’… decyphering the rhetoric (do you remember, Lasse?)

• Youth work• professionally ’managed’ / facilitated• self-governed youth organisations• centre-based, detached, projects.....

• Personal and social development• Integration• Inclusion• Prevention• Diversion• Participation• Youth leadership

But we DO agree on experience and opportunity ... Broadening horizons.... Extending Entitlement•

Collaboration – Pétainesque, pragmatic, or principled?

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What have we been talking about?

• Youth work• Youth policy• Youth work policy• Youth work and policy• Youth work and youth policy

• And (surprisingly) relatively little about structural disadvantage of and discrimination against youth in general and specific social groups of young people who ‘suffer’ disproportionately

• Redressing or Addressing inequalities? Or not…..? Rather than just ‘tackling’ individual disengagement.

• Right at the end: participation and protest – partem carpe. Taking a piece of the action, wanting a slice of the cake? Role of youth work?

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Clarity of identity and role?

• Heads of a movement or Arms of the State

• Fruit cocktails or fruit purées

• External and complementary, not Internal and supplementary

•The role of individuals* (Guy von Weissenberg, Gisela Konopka, David Maunders & John Ewen… Lasse Siurala, Dale Blythe, Jon Ord?)

* If you think you are too small to make a difference, just think about being a misquito in a closed and crowded room

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Conclusion (1)

• Limited room for manoevre• Political control trumps other influences• But there is still space for some level of ’autonomy’• Need to build intentional alliances in order to resist unwanted alliances• Defining and deciding on ’sacred cows’ that can be sacrificed, against ’cherished values’ that must be defended

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Conclusion (2)

• • Human rights, democracy, participation, empowerment, educative, expression, inclusion, association, voluntarism...?

• Value base at the centre of practitioner training remains the best hope of professional autonomy within many variations of institutional dependency

• Values are the only guarantee against dependencies that threaten individualisation or institutionalisation and promote a path between the two

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Youth workers are gardeners, not mechanics……

Education/Learning is not about the filling of a vessel but the lighting of a flame (Plutarch)

“You don’t grow grass by pulling it”Youth work is not about fixing youth (Joyce)