what historical/economic changes occurred to create the concept of ‘youth’ and in the same process youth work.
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Answers
In a number of countries youth work definitions and missions recently have been under discussion and also on a European level the new EU framework for youth policy comes up with a new role for a more professionalised youth work. What lessons can we draw from youth work's history?
Youth Work in times of change
Youth work has always played a role in broader social and pedagogical strategies but there is indeed a risk of instrumentalisation and youth work becoming a weapon for all targets. This ambivalent position of youth work practice lead to a discussion on youth work's identity and its essential features. Especially the reframing from a so-called passive welfare state into an active welfare state has re-emphasised the moral and pedagogical role of youth work and this has led to a revaluation of historical consciousness in youth work practice, policy and research especially in the UK and in Germany. This interest in youth work's history has recently been taken up by the EU-CoE Youth Partnership, finding its way to Belgium with the organisation of two expert seminars and the first European Conference on Youth Work History.
What we tend to think of as ‘the essential features' of youth work is carried by young people, policymakers, researchers, youth workers, parents and other social professionals. Youth work is group work, work in leisure time, based on informal learning, based on association and recreation, …These characterics have a long history. They sometimes structure our practices without being visible or questionable. Therefore it is useful to be aware of where we come from and where we think we are going. How did youth work principles evolve through history? Which evidences have been thrown overboard and why? Which policies have already been tried before, although they are now introduced as brand-new? History won't tell us what to do in the future, but it is a mirror in which today's practices and policies can be critically examined.
Different roots, from lifeworld to system
Youth work is known now as a social and pedagogical intervention in the third socialisation environment. It has its roots however in the school on the one hand and poverty relief on the other hand. The school formed a platform for young people to be together, celebrating autonomy, creating an own youth culture and cherishing an own, youthful perspective on society. In that sense school was the cradle of different youth movements at the end of the 19th Century, with the German Wandervögel as a well-known exponent. The Wandervögel were formed by some college students who resisted the huge social transformations (industrialisation, proletarisation, urbanisation, …) of the time. They did not want to uncritically follow in the footsteps of their fathers. They sang, hiked and camped and created a distinct youth culture.
In about the same period there were people that suffered from exactly the same huge transformations: working class kids who were unemployed or too young to work, spending their days wandering on the streets and often committing petty crime. Well-meaning people from bourgeoisie or church took care of these young people from the working class. They were brought together in what was called ‘patronages', ‘settlements' or ‘oratorio'. The Italian priest don Bosco is a famous pioneer here. In these youth care institutions children and young people could come to play and enjoy themselves. Adult counsellors certainly hoped that they also could motivate young people to pray and to learn. In that sense youth work also descended from social work.
Both youth work as social work or youth work as youth movement existed in about every European country. In these roots one can identify two powerful and often competing sources of inspiration: the social question and the youth question. The former started up as a public intervention to deal with the integration of the lower social classes in mainstream society. The latter starts from a lifeworld perspective and is an attempt to change society so that it fits better the needs of young people, emancipating as a distinct age group. Depending on the perspective one takes, the integration efforts take into account either the social context, or the individual development of young people. Throughout history, youth work has always been oscillating between its two legs, showing itself as a ‘social' practice mediating between private aspirations of young people and public expectations from the established society.
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Here Is Your Ans
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Youth (age 15–24) can successfully create social change.
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A new framework for youth engagement strategies and impacts is presented.
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Results show a strong relationship between impact achieved and the approaches used.
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Youth have had great impacts participating in political action in political parties
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