Full Description
There is on-going debate in youth and community work regarding its future. Driven by processes of neo-liberal governmentality, youth work has been bent in new and uncomfortable directions. For many, this threatens the very telos of praxis. However, despite this, a passionate commitment to youth work's values and approaches doggedly remains.
This edited volume invites academics working in different continents and contexts to move beyond a critique of youth work's current state, towards imagining different professional futures. Rooted in the profession's historic values, and drawing on the distinct political and cultural environments that have shaped youth work practice in different global locations, the authors explore possible new routes and approaches for the profession. These discussions are located geographically (in a devolved United Kingdom, Europe, United States, Australasia, and the Developing/Majority world) as well as across different sectors and approaches (voluntary sector, faith sector, online, young women's work). The result is a rich picture of global practice. This provides both depth and perspective from which to gain new insights regarding possibilities for future practices, which imagine fairer and more participative societies.
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Graham Bright and Carole Pugh
1 On Critical Beginnings: How We Got to Where We Are
Bernard Davies and Tony Taylor
2 Contrasting Futures? Exploring Youth Work across the UK
Tony Jeffs, Annette Coburn, Alastair Scott-McKinley and Steve Drowley
3 Youth Work and Cartographic Action: Re-naming Paradoxes - Mapping Utopian Futures
Graham Bright and Carole Pugh
4 Youth Workin' All over Europe: Moving, Associating, Organising and Providing
Howard Williamson and Filip Coussée
5 The Future of US Youth Work
Dana Fusco and Michael Baizerman
6 Future Prospects for Australasian Youth Work
Trudi Cooper and Rod Baxter
7 Youth Work: Global Futures - Pictures from the Developing World
Stuart Wroe
8 Dichotomous Voluntary Futures
Ilona Buchroth and Dan Connolly
9 Where Is Faith-Based Youth Work Heading?
Naomi Thompson
10 The Future of Online Youth Work
Jane Melvin
11 On the Future of Youth Work with Young Women
Janet Batsleer and Karen McCarthy
12 Towards New Horizons? 'Youth and Community Work' and Rhizomatic Possibilities
Graham Bright and Carole Pugh
Index
