Navigational Capacities for Southern Youth in Adverse Contexts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharlene Swartz
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Global South ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Constant Feature ◽  
Adaptive Resilience ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This essay identifies six navigational capacities or contextual formative abilities that young people in Southern contexts, and those who care about them, may find helpful to debate and nurture. These navigational capacities are the capacity (1) to act alone as an individual in a community; (2) to aspire beyond culturally bounded horizons without resorting to exit, apathy, or violent struggles; (3) to acquire a range of capitals that include money, networks, dignity, and a knowledge of the rules of the game; (4) to recognize and analyze the influence of social structures and policies on their lives; (5) to achieve open identities to ensure justice along multiple axes of oppression; and (6) to act collectively in pursuit of better lives for self and others. The idea of navigational capacities acknowledges that adversity, change, and movement are a constant feature of the landscape of youth in the Global South. Thus, developing flexible capacities—rather than hard skills, rigid assets, or only adaptive resilience—is a more helpful goal for youth development. The essay describes these capacities, their theoretical foundations, and potential as a framework for practice and analysis in youth work and youth studies research in the Global South.

scholarly journals Reflections on a Century of Youth Development Research and Practice

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-May ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce A. Walker ◽  
Michelle Alberti Gambone ◽  
Kathrin C. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Development Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Retrospective Account ◽  
Development Practice

This introduction to the special issue highlights the youth development research and practice base that influenced the field in the 20th century and presents some historical context for the practice and study of youth work. Next, it provides an overview of the articles which offer a retrospective account of youth development from how youth development has been studied, understood and measured to how youth development practice has evolved to support, engage and address the needs of young people. The introduction concludes with reflections stimulated by the process of reviewing the manuscripts and working with the authors on their contributions. Three themes emerged as good grist for the 21st century conversations moving forward: 1) the divergent perspectives on definition, dimensions of practice and accountability, 2) the value of translational scholarship bridging science and complex practice, and 3) the importance of leveraging systems support for field building.

scholarly journals Moving Beyond Where and When to the People and Practices That Impact Youth

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Karen Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
After School ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
The People ◽  
Skill Building

Descriptors like after-school and out-of-school make it easy for funders and families to understand the basics of what the youth development field offers—places for young people to go when they are not in school. These descriptors, however, do little to promote the youth work profession. Youth work is best practiced in settings that prioritize relationships, promote social and community engagement, and provide opportunities for interest-based skill building and exploration. The value youth workers bring to their practice, as the archive of articles in this journal demonstrates, is not in the basic descriptors of the setting, but in the design of the learning environments. This article explores the need for youth work professionals to use, contribute to, and share our knowledge base within and outside of the field.

scholarly journals Social Justice Youth Work: Actualizing Youth Rights

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-148
Author(s):  
Monica McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Youth Rights ◽  
Work Model

This article explores models of prevention/intervention and positive youth development within the context of social justice. Both of these models seek to support young people, but they have vastly different methods and goals. The author argues that these models fall short of effectively supporting youth because they neglect to interrogate how power, privilege and oppressive forces shape a young person's identity and how that young person engages with society. Therefore, a new approach to working with youth is needed: a social justice youth work model. The author proposes this model as a means for youth and adults to work together to achieve a high quality of life in an equitable world. The paper outlines three steps to enact this approach with young people: 1. develop self-awareness within youth and adults; 2. build solidarity across differences; and 3. take action towards dismantling unjust systems. In order to do this work successfully, adults must first interrogate their own motivations for engaging in social justice work with youth.

Youth Development in Europe

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katariina Salmela-Aro ◽  
Ingrid Schoon
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Transition To Adulthood ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Reciprocal Interactions ◽  
The Family ◽  
Key Players

A series of six papers on “Youth Development in Europe: Transitions and Identities” has now been published in the European Psychologist throughout 2008 and 2009. The papers aim to make a conceptual contribution to the increasingly important area of productive youth development by focusing on variations and changes in the transition to adulthood and emerging identities. The papers address different aspects of an integrative framework for the study of reciprocal multiple person-environment interactions shaping the pathways to adulthood in the contexts of the family, the school, and social relationships with peers and significant others. Interactions between these key players are shaped by their embeddedness in varied neighborhoods and communities, institutional regulations, and social policies, which in turn are influenced by the wider sociohistorical and cultural context. Young people are active agents, and their development is shaped through reciprocal interactions with these contexts; thus, the developing individual both influences and is influenced by those contexts. Relationship quality and engagement in interactions appears to be a fruitful avenue for a better understanding of how young people adjust to and tackle development to productive adulthood.

Personhood and youth-making in contemporary Indigenous Amazonia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen ◽  
Alessandra Severino da Silva Manchinery
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Global South ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Indigenous Youth ◽  
Social Responsibilities ◽  
Brazilian Amazonia ◽  
University Studies ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
Indigenous Voices

This essay looks at the construction of personhood in Brazilian Amazonia from the perspective of Indigenous youth. In Amazonian sociocosmology, personhood is constructed relationally, a process in which the body is a distinctive factor. Consequently, during schooling and university studies, young people have responded to and resisted representations and policies that have often silenced Indigenous voices and limited their fabrication of bodies. The contemporary social responsibilities of Indigenous youth and the challenges faced in undertaking them shape how their subjectivity, agency, and recognized social belonging are being constantly increased, removed, or even denied. The essay draws from anthropological theories of relational personhood, as well as ideas of geo- and body-politics present in theorizing on the Global South.

scholarly journals ‘You're not sure that you are gay yet’: The perpetuation of the ‘phase’ in the lives of young disabled LGBT + people

Sexualities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Toft ◽  
Anita Franklin ◽  
Emma Langley
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Authentic Identity ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Identity Shifts

Contemporary discourse on sexuality presents a picture of fluidity and malleability, with research continuing to frame sexuality as negotiable, within certain parameters and social structures. Such investigation is fraught with difficulties, due in part to the fact that as one explores how identity shifts, language terms such as ‘phase’ emerge conjuring images of a definitive path towards an end-goal, as young people battle through a period of confusion and emerge at their true or authentic identity. Seeing sexuality and gender identity as a phase can delegitimise and prevent access to support, which is not offered due to the misconception that it is not relevant and that one can grow out of being LGBT+. This article explores the lives of disabled LGBT + young people from their perspective, using their experiences and stories to explore their identities and examine how this links to the misconception of their sexuality and gender as a phase. Taking inspiration from the work of scholars exploring sexual and gender identity, and sexual storytelling; the article is framed by intersectionality which allows for a detailed analysis of how identities interact and inform, when used as an analytic tool. The article calls for a more nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender in the lives of disabled LGBT + young people, which will help to reduce inequality and exclusion.

scholarly journals European Youth Work Policy and Young People’s Experience of Open Access Youth Work

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
JON ORD ◽  
MARC CARLETTI ◽  
DANIELE MORCIANO ◽  
LASSE SIURALA ◽  
CHRISTOPHE DANSAC ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Young People ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
European Youth

Abstract This article examines young people’s experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between ‘top down’ policy formulation and the ‘youth centric’ practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places for young people must remain meaningful to them ‘on their terms’.

Anti-Black Racism and Historical Trauma: Pushing the Positive Youth Development Paradigm

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110078
Author(s):  
Anna Ortega-Williams ◽  
Troy Harden
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Positive Youth Development ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Development Paradigm

Positive youth development (PYD), while embraced in many sectors of youth work, has faced criticism for its primary emphasis on positive personal change and adaptation, without a strong emphasis on social justice and culture, especially relevant for African Americans. Additional models of PYD addressing these conceptual gaps have emerged, however few explicitly address anti-Black racism and historical trauma impacting African American youth development. In this paper, expanded models of PYD, specifically Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development (EBPYD) and Critical Positive Youth Development (CPYD) will be examined for their strengths and limitations in responding to (1) anti-Black racism and (2) historical trauma among African American youth. Key strategies of these models, such as promoting prosocial behavior and civic engagement will be reconceptualized and expanded to account for developmental needs imposed by historical oppression and contemporary racism against African American youth. Implications for PYD programing will be discussed.

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