Justice Seeking is Joy Seeking: The Formation of Faith-Informed, Community-Focused, Critical Consciousness in Adolescents

Abstract Seeking justice, understanding what makes for peace and pursuing it, these are integral aspects of the pursuit of the Good Life. In this chapter three youth and community development experts make the case that 1) a vital aspect of development is empowering adolescents with a faith-informed, community-focused, critical consciousness; 2) young people are formed in community and joy cannot be fully experienced except communally and in the pursuit of JustPeace; and 3) the church has opportunities to intervene at critical junctures in youth formation to help them see the importance of pursuing communal JustPeace for their own ability to live the Good Life. In support of these claims, a framework of radical Identity is postulated and two practices—the Eight Bowls of Life Ceremony for generational identity marking and the Game of Life, part of a three-week intentional community of the Youth Theological Initiative (yti) – are presented. Each practice contributes to formation of justice-seeking identities in adolescents as integral aspects of preparation for the life-long pursuit of God’s joy, God’s good life, and even God’s salvation.

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Let’s talk about sex: Discourses on sexual relations, sugar dating and “prostitution-like” behaviour in drug treatment for young people

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.1177/14550725211018051 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 145507252110180

Author(s):

Ditte Andersen ◽

Ida Friis Thing

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Drug Treatment ◽

Good Life ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

The Good Life ◽

Sexual Relations ◽

Exchange Economies ◽

Subject Positions ◽

Alternative Discourses ◽

Recurrent Theme

Background: Sexual relations are a recurrent theme in drug treatment that aims for a holistic inclusion of concerns considered important in young people's lives. Nevertheless, it remains understudied how counselors attend to this theme Aim: To investigate the discourses on sexual relations in drug treatment for young people provided by the Scandinavian welfare state of Denmark Analysis: Drawing on qualitative interviews with 16 counselors the analysis first identifies three discourses that legitimize sexual relations as a theme in drug treatment by linking the theme to a) pleasure, b) risks, and c) problems. These discourses legitimize the theme by constructing sexual relations as part of the good life, as potentially harmful, or as related to past trauma triggering present problems. Second, the analysis identifies a gendered storyline on sexual relations in exchange economies, e.g., sugar dating, described by some counselors as “prostitution-like” behavior. Findings: The gendered storyline is almost exclusively linked to young women's behavior and produces a gendered shame by indicating deviant femininity. Simultaneously, the storyline taboos how the young men may experience vulnerable sexual relations in exchange economies Conclusion: Alternative discourses can provide a broader repertoire of subject positions to the benefit of all genders.

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Radically Ordinary Lives: Young Rural Stayers and the Ingredients of the Good Life in Finnish Lapland

Young ◽

10.1177/11033088211064685 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 110330882110646

Author(s):

Ria-Maria Adams ◽

Teresa Komu

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Good Life ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Building Blocks ◽

General Tendency ◽

The Good Life ◽

Career Plans ◽

Home Town ◽

Finnish Lapland

This article focuses on young people who, despite the general tendency towards youth outmigration in rural areas, have decided to stay in their home town. We explore the agency of young, conscious stayers, as well as the process of staying in the northern Finnish town of Kemijärvi. The stayers’ values and perceptions of the constituents of a good life could be taken as an alternative to the prevailing Western ideal that emphasizes mobility and ambitious educational and career plans, and is, in part, driving young people to leave their rural hometowns. The stayers in this study are active participants in their own fate and are content with their choice of staying. Applying ethnographic methods, we undertake to learn what rural stayers consider the building blocks of a good life in a small-town setting, one offering comparatively limited options in terms of jobs, education and leisure activities.

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Introduction

Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty - Chemical Youth ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-57081-1_1 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-41

Author(s):

Anita Hardon

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Social Relations ◽

Good Life ◽

The Other ◽

The Good Life ◽

Psychoactive Substances ◽

Everyday Lives ◽

The Everyday ◽

Shared Understandings ◽

Scholarly Attention

Abstract The everyday lives of contemporary youth are awash with chemicals to boost pleasure, energy, sexual performance, appearance, and health. What do pills, drinks, sprays, powders, and lotions do for youth? What effects are youth seeking? The ChemicalYouth ethnographies presented here, based on more than five years of fieldwork conducted in Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Cayagan de Oro, Paris, Makassar, Puerto Princesa, and Yogyakarta, show that young people try out chemicals together, compare experiences, and engage in collaborative experiments. ChemicalYouth: Navigating Uncertainty: In Search of the Good Life makes a case for examining a broader range of chemicals that young people use in their everyday lives. It focuses not just on psychoactive substances—the use of which is viewed with concern by parents, educators, and policymakers—but all the other chemicals that young people use to boost pleasure, moods, vitality, appearance, and health, purposes for using chemicals that have received far less scholarly attention. It takes the use of chemicals as situated practices that are embedded in social relations and that generate shared understandings of efficacy. More specifically, it seeks to answer the question: how do young people balance the benefits and harms of chemicals in their quest for a good life?

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Philosophy and the good life

Journal of Philosophy in Schools ◽

10.21913/jps.v5i1.1482 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Angela Hobbs

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Recent Work ◽

Good Life ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Ethical Framework ◽

The Good Life ◽

Greek Philosophy ◽

Ancient Greek ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Ancient Greek Philosophy

This paper considers the implications for education of a reworked ancient Greek ethics and politics of flourishing (particularly as found in Plato), where ‘flourishing’ comprises the objective actualisation of our intellectual, imaginative and affective potential. A brief outline of the main features of an ethics of flourishing and its potential attractions as an ethical framework is followed by a consideration of the ethical, aesthetic and political requirements of such a framework for the theory and practice of education, indicating the ways in which my approach differs from other recent work in the field. I argue that the teaching of philosophy in schools and philosophical approaches to the teaching of other subjects are ideally suited to meet the pedagogic requirements of individual and communal flourishing so understood, contributing greatly both to the understanding of what a well-lived life might be, and to the actual living of it. I further argue that these requirements are not only derived from ancient Greek philosophy but are in turn especially well-served by the teaching and deployment of Greek philosophy itself. My claim is not that Greek philosophy has all the answers, or that other philosophers and philosophical approaches should be excluded; it is simply that Greek philosophy offers rich resources for those seeking to introduce children and young people to philosophy and to foster thereby their flourishing in both childhood and as adults.

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The social contagion of aspirations: On the happiness of having a 'life style'

Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund ◽

10.7146/tfss.v14i26.26285 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (26) ◽

Author(s):

Birgitte Folmann

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Life Style ◽

Good Life ◽

Rapid Change ◽

Social Contagion ◽

Northern Uganda ◽

The Good Life ◽

Form Of Life ◽

Life Styles ◽

Health Related

Discussions of health-related behaviors and lifestyle often become theoretical and morally laden owing to their individualistic view on risk factors and life choices. This article uses the analytical concepts of contagion and configuration to explore the spread of aspirations for the good life among young men in Northern Uganda. The potential social contagion of aspirations is unfolded to provide a deeper understanding of social processes not only as dynamics between people but also as processes between people and their surroundings in a society which is subject to rapid change. This understanding will provide a sense of the meaning invested in having a ‘life style’ and the significance of choice. Inspired theoretically by the Weberian concept of life style, it is found that young people in Northern Uganda, although they may be limited in terms of their life chances, live their lives as well as possible by taking advantage of the little space for choice that the reality of their resources and class circumstances allows. Young people in particular seek to engage in and perform what could be described as aspirational consumption in the form of ‘life styles’; and even though they rarely succeed, making some progress along this path seems important and fuels their ongoing aspiration for the good life. Having a ‘life style’ means being able to choose and consume, and getting a ‘life style’ reflects an aspiration for social mobility. Taking the emic approach helps to explain how social contagion occurs and how health-related practices are formed.

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Theology is ethics: how Karl Barth sees the good life

Scottish Journal of Theology ◽

10.1017/s0036930611000238 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

pp. 425-438

Author(s):

Andy Alexis-Baker

Keyword(s):

Immanuel Kant ◽

Moral Philosophy ◽

Good Life ◽

Human Life ◽

Karl Barth ◽

The Good Life ◽

Proper Place ◽

Basic Premise ◽

Classical View ◽

The Church

AbstractSince Immanuel Kant, moral reasoning has been divorced from classical theology and reinscribed onto self-contained individuals. Shorn of theological particularities, modern ethics tries to identify behaviours to which every right-thinking person can assent. A basic premise of classical moral philosophy, however, was that if we know who we are and what ourtelosis, then we can have a good idea of how we ought to act. In his christology, Barth reappropriates this classical view of ethics and situates it christologically. Because Jesus’ human nature finds its being andtelosin his divinity, Barth found an ethical pattern in theanhypostasis-enhypostasisdoctrine. Restoring people to their proper place as creatures rather than Kantian demi-gods, Jesus shows us what it means to be truly human by being obedient to the Father. We cannot divinise individuals or the church, but the church existsenhypostatically. Thisanhypostatic-enhypostaticchristological pattern orders our activities, making worship the first task of ethics. In prayer and in Sabbath keeping, Jesus shows us his utter dependence on God through supplication and rest. In these acts of worship, Christians act as they were created to act. We respond obediently to our Creator. But we also find an orientation towards other people in christology. Love of enemies has everything to do with the content and shape of God's command. It is involved in thetelosof human life in being Christ-like.

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