Beyond Youth Development: Generating Alternative Narratives of Change in Youth Work

Dear Colleagues,

The context of this Special Issue is the increasing focus on the material and measurable benefits of youth work across Europe and the wider world. This focus is aligned with evidencing increased employability and educational or ‘positive’ outcomes and reduced crime or suicide rates, as well as the benefits accrued by individual young people in terms of personal and social development. However, this Special Issue is concerned with the less discernable and ‘individualistic’ outcomes, i.e., those that are under the radar, less easy to measure and not necessarily on the policy agenda but are nonetheless significant for the young people themselves, their peer group, their communities, and wider society.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight alternative forms of youth work, the benefits these produce, as well as the processes which enable the development of outcomes that are beneficial but difficult to measure. As such, this Special Issue will help to create and sustain alternative discourses of youth work beyond the narrow confines of current mainstream policy. We are particularly interested in youth work that focuses on young people’s peer groups and their diverse and interconnected ‘communities’, as well as the relationship of youth work with wider social and ecological change. It is anticipated that this Special Issue can promote a shift in the focus of youth work beyond the prosaic, in order to uncover the change processes which challenge the status quo and open alternative discourses and conversations about the purpose of youth work, therefore, highlighting the changes that take place beyond individual development on a peer group, community and society level.

In considering how alternative practices have already begun to create transformative youth work in parallel to, or even despite current policy contexts, we seek contributions from authors who are interested in the narratives of young people, youth workers and projects that are located outside of dominant neoliberal discourses of individuality, individual development and mainstream policy agendas of employability and skills acquisition. Typically, these will be located in creative, cutting-edge and novel youth work practices that challenge inequalities through the authentic engagement of young people in processes that contribute to social change at micro and macro levels. This Special Issue will resonate with findings from Kauppinen, Kiilakoski and Palojoki (2021), who portray youth centers as informal learning environments where young people engage in activities to foster learning—the starting point for which is purposeful peer interactions.

This Special Issue will supplement the existing literature on youth participation in youth work settings and youth participation across wider society, as well as generate new narrative perspectives on youth work. Examples of the existing literature in this area include:

Bowler, R., & Razak, A. (2019). Continuities and Change: Some reflections on 21 years of anti-racist youth work. Youth and Policy.

Bright, G., & Pugh, C. (Eds.). (2019). Youth Work: Global Futures. Leiden: Brill Sense.

de St Croix, T. (2016). Grassroots Youth Work: Policy, Passion and Resistance in Practice. Bristol: Policy Press.

European Commission. (2014). Working with Young people: The Value of Youth Work in the European Union. Available online: http://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/youth/library/study/youth-work-report_en.pdf (accessed on 21 April 2019).

European Commission (2017). The Contribution of Youth Work to Preventing Marginalisation and Violent Radicalisation: A practical toolbox for youth workers & recommendations for policy makers. Available online: http://www.injuve.es/sites/default/files/informe_coe.pdf (accessed on 15 April 2019).

Gormally, S., Coburn, A., & Beggan, E. (2021). Idealistic Assertions or Realistic Possibilities in Community and Youth Work Education. Education Sciences, 11(9), 561.

Kauppinen, E., Kiilakoski, T., & Palojoki, P. (2021). Youth Centres as Foodscapes and Informal Learning Environments in Finland. YOUNG, 29(5), 490–507.

Ord, J., Carletti, M., Morciano, D., Siurala, L., Dansac, C., Taru, M., Fyfe, I., Cooper, S., Kötsi, K., Sinisalo-Juha, E., & Zentner, M. (2021). European Youth Work Policy and Young People’s Experience of Open Access Youth Work. Journal of Social Policy, 51(2), 303–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279421000143.

Ord, J., & Monks A. (2021). Food Poverty & Youth Work: A Community Response. Critical Social Policy, 42(1), 64–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018321996534.

Sallah, M., Ogunnusi, M., & Kennedy, R. (2018). Intersectionality and Resistance in Youth Work: Young People, Peace and Global ‘Development’ in a Racialized World. In P. Alldred, F. Cullen, K. Edwards & D. Fusco. (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Youth Work Practice. London: Sage Reference.

Prof. Dr. Jon Ord
Dr. Annette Coburn
Dr. Tomi Kiilakoski
Dr. Ilona-Evelyn Rannala
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• youth work
• process of change
• communities
• development
• peers
• outcomes
• narratives
• alternative policy discourse