Imagining ‘radical’ youth work possibilities – challenging the ‘symbolic violence’ within the mainstream tradition in contemporary state-led youth work practice in England

Cooper, Charlie

doi:10.1080/13676261.2011.618489

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…However, much of current youth policy since Youth Matters (2005) says little about young people's sexuality, other than in very general terms and when it does refer to it sexual identity, behaviour and expression are frequently conflated with sexual health and wellbeing (Carabine 1996b). Cooper (2012) has argued that contemporary youth work practice constitutes a form of symbolic violence insofar as it limits the possibilities for some young people and masks the material inequalities and structural barriers that prevent disadvantaged young people from inventing their adulthoods. Drawing on Davies (2010) and Batsleer (2010), Cooper (2012, p. 55) posits that 'what is crucial is not so much the policy, but the practice' of contemporary youth work.…”

Section: Tensions Contradictions and Convergence Between Policy And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Absent but present: a critical analysis of the representation of sexuality in recent youth policy in the UK

Moore

Prescott

2012

Journal of Youth Studies

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Absent but present: a critical analysis of the representation of sexuality in recent youth policy in the UK, Journal of Youth Studies, 16:2, 191-205, Current youth policy in England and Wales utilises 'transition' as the major framework for understanding young people's movement from 'youth' to 'adulthood'. Underpinning this are developmental assumptions about who young people are and who they 'should' become, especially with regard to sexuality. 'Childhood' and 'youth' are conceptualised as asexual or pre-sexual categories and those young people who are deemed to have sexual knowledge are problematised. Transitions to adulthood are inescapably heteronormative: the movement to adulthood is not simply about becoming an adult, but about becoming a man or a woman conforming to compulsory heterosexuality. Current youth policy says little about young people's sexuality and when it does it frequently conflates sexual behaviour with sexual health. Drawing on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and, in particular, his concepts of field, habitus and symbolic violence, it will be argued that despite the rhetoric of participation, engagement and inclusion in current youth policy it continues to perpetuate and naturalise the symbolic order between 'adults' and young people and continues to position youth sexuality as potentially dangerous.

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Section: Tensions Contradictions and Convergence Between Policy And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Absent but present: a critical analysis of the representation of sexuality in recent youth policy in the UK

Moore

Prescott

2012

Journal of Youth Studies

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“…As Rossi and his colleagues (2004) stated, there are hardly any social problems that can be easily and convincingly described in terms of simple and unambiguous characteristics of the individuals experiencing those problems. Therefore, the first implication for SFD stakeholders designing and researching SFD programs is to pay more attention to the needs assessment of young people by starting with an open-ended bottomup approach that is tailored to the actual life situations of young people and their individual differences, instead of relying on pre-defined, abstract ideas (Cooper, 2012;Giulianotti, Hognestad, & Spaaij, 2016;Haudenhuyse et al, 2012b;Haudenhuyse, Theeboom, & Coalter, 2012a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, outside of SFD, in other youth development contexts, the concept of self-esteem, for instance, has become a 'household word' on the assumption that boosting it will by itself foster positive outcomes, although evidence for such an assumption has not been found (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003;Mruk, 2013). Unfortunately, a large number of SFD practitioners and scholars within sport-based youth development contexts find it difficult to resist thinking in terms of a deficit model, thereby aligning themselves with the dominant managerialist or political rhetoric, and potentially harming young people and their self-image (Cooper, 2012;Kennelly, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Sport-for-Development Initiatives and Young People in Socially Vulnerable Situations: Investigating the ‘Deficit Model’

Nols

Haudenhuyse

Theeboom

2017

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Critical scholars have indicated that the assumptions underlying most sport-for-development (SFD) initiatives tend to align with a 'deficit model' of youth: young people from disadvantaged areas are uniformly deficient and in need of development, which can be achieved through sport (Coakley, 2011;Coalter, 2013). In this article, we investigated these assumptions within six urban SFD initiatives that work with young people in socially vulnerable situations in a 'first' world nation, Belgium. We conducted a survey at two moments in time amongst 14-to 25-year-old participants in order to test two assumptions: i) 'participants are deficient and in need of development'; and ii) 'participation in SFD initiatives leads to positive personal development'. We operationalised 'development' as the commonly used outcomes of perceived selfefficacy and self-esteem. These are 'household words' both inside and outside SFD research, practice, and policy and carry the assumption that boosting them will by itself foster positive outcomes. The findings refute the supposition that young people from disadvantaged urban areas are uniformly in need of more perceived self-efficacy and self-esteem and show that there is no simple and predictable change in participants' 'development'. We suggest that, in designing and researching programs, SFD stakeholders start from an open-ended bottom-up approach which is tailored to the actual life situations of young people and their individual differences and consider more interpersonal and critical conceptualisations of 'development'.

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“…• Socially responsible generation There is evidence to show that the introduction of the NCS has led to a new market for youth service providers which have resulted in spaces for critical youth work practice becoming more problematic (Cooper, 2012). In the context of the current political and economic climate it can be argued that the NCS has nurtured a form of youth work practice which 'imposes constraints and raises contradictions; complicating the delivery of services, at the same time as diminishing the rewards of inspired practice at all levels' (Mason, 2015, p19).…”

Section: Desired Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is indicative of a youth policy which seeks to construct a youth sector based upon a 'payments-by results' delivery model. Cooper (2012) suggests that the current national youth policy framework is 'closing off opportunities for progressive ways of working with young people ' (2012, p6). The concern about a neocommunitarian approach is that it fosters compliance with a form of practice which offers The recent NCS commissioning process indicates that this neo-communitarian trend has been accelerated and is indicative of how neo-liberalism and market logics have encroached into the social action field.…”

Section: Neo-communitarian Model: Marketisation Of Youth Provisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise of a neo-communitarian project: A critical youth work study into the pedagogy of the National Citizen Service in England

Murphy

2017

Citizenship, Social and Economics Education

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This article draws upon recent empirical data from a series of in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with professional youth work practitioners. It is focused upon contemporary practice experiences of social action and youth citizenship projects across North East England. The research provides a more nuanced understanding of the National Citizen Service programmes to make sense of the meaning of citizenship in the twenty-first century. The findings contribute towards a critical appraisal of the National Citizen Service as a vehicle for youth social action in the changing social, economic and political landscapes in a post-Brexit society. It offers some useful insights into approaches to practice interventions, the impact on young people and contests the type of citizen envisaged within the NCS curricula and pedagogy. It adopts a critical perspective to explore recent government rhetoric and seeks to identify the salient assumptions and ways of seeing youth citizenship today. It suggests that we are witnessing the emergence of a form of neo-communitarian citizenship, which can be characterised as a distinct form of ‘active citizenship’ premised on neoliberal economic imperatives, resulting in a reconfiguration of youth work practice and accelerating the demise of young people’s entitlement to universal service provision.

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Imagining ‘radical’ youth work possibilities – challenging the ‘symbolic violence’ within the mainstream tradition in contemporary state-led youth work practice in England

Cited by 33 publications

References 15 publications

Absent but present: a critical analysis of the representation of sexuality in recent youth policy in the UK

Absent but present: a critical analysis of the representation of sexuality in recent youth policy in the UK

Urban Sport-for-Development Initiatives and Young People in Socially Vulnerable Situations: Investigating the ‘Deficit Model’

The rise of a neo-communitarian project: A critical youth work study into the pedagogy of the National Citizen Service in England

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