scholarly journals Social justice or social control? An ethnographic study of detached youth work in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-276
Author(s):  
Emma Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Community Safety ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Ethnographic Data

This article examines the experiences of a newly formed detached youth work project in Scotland and its relationship to neo-liberal ideology. The growth of neo-liberalism has, as with other social professions, made detached youth work vulnerable to a deficit-based approach. This has come hand-in-hand with managerial practices focused on efficient, targeted interventions delivered through short term budgets. The article, drawing on ethnographic data, describe a team of youth workers challenged with reconciling their deep commitment to delivering a programme of relational youth work with the targeted focus of the project on ‘risky’ youth and associated local apparatus of community safety. Throughout youth work's history the dividing line between youth work and mechanisms of social control has been slippery to navigate. The article argues that emergent neo-liberal ideology presents a further professional challenge to youth work. In the context of austerity and a widening neo-liberal policy agenda from Westminster, Scottish youth workers are being required to work harder to demonstrate that the service is not simply there to target ‘risky’ social groups or ‘plug the gaps’ that the state can no longer provide. Youth workers, in this context, must continue to make the case in defence of well-resourced, universal youth work and its potential to contribute to tackling social injustice and inequality.

A Comparative Study of the State of Ethics in Youth Work Practice in Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cleopatra Monique Parkins
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
The United Kingdom

Even though youth work has played a critical role in fostering the holistic development of today’s youth, much controversy has surrounded the practice. Nevertheless, youth workers are slowly being accorded professional status, and a code of ethics has been developed in some jurisdictions. Some states are still to adopt this code; consequently the credibility of youth workers and the sector in general sway with the wind. This article presents a comparative analysis of ethical practices of youth work in Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, examining current trends in observing ethics and addressing ethical issues. In the case of Jamaica, the researcher used the non-probability convenience sampling technique and collected primary data from a questionnaire administered to a sample of youth workers. The perspective of the ministerial arm responsible for youth work in Jamaica was also captured through an interview. In the case of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the framework of the profession and specifically matters pertaining to ethical practices were examined through the use of secondary data sources, which included reports on youth work practices in the selected countries. A mixed methodology was employed in analysing the data collected. The major findings of this study confirmed that advancing youth work as a profession is dependent on the acceptance and integration of a formal code of ethics, that youth workers must receive training on ethics and that a national youth work policy is important to guide youth work practice. In accordance with the findings, the researcher makes a number of recommendations and highlights notable best practices that may help with the overall professionalisation of the sector.

scholarly journals Review of Trimester-Specific Gestational Weight Gain and Childhood Adiposity

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
K Thapa
Keyword(s):  
Weight Gain ◽  
Childhood Obesity ◽  
Gestational Weight Gain ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Institute Of Medicine ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Gestational Weight ◽  
Childhood Adiposity

Childhood obesity is a global epidemic and a major public health challenge. There has been increasing evidence that intrauterine exposures, such as alcohol, smoking, and maternal nutritional status, may affect both the long and short term health consequences of the mother and offspring. Childhood adiposity may be affected by the mother’s pre-pregnancy weight and her weight gain during pregnancy. Consequently, interventions may need to start before conception of the child to prevent childhood obesity. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine updated its gestational weight gain recommendations by incorporating rates of gestational weight gain in the second and third trimesters based on the mother’s pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index. There is extensive research on the association between total gestational weight gain and short-term offspring adiposity. However, this review focuses on the association between trimester-specific gestational weight gain and childhood adiposity for singleton pregnancies with respect to the Institute of Medicine’s newly defined weight gain recommendations as very few studies have examined the association between the gestational weight gain during each trimester and childhood adiposity. Identifying the trimester that is most associated with childhood adiposity may help in the development of targeted interventions, guide physician’s nutritional and weight-gain recommendations for child-bearing mothers, and direct future research. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jnps.v34i1.8429   J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2014;34(1):48-53

scholarly journals The Unbearable Lightness of Trust: Trade, conviviality, and the life-world of Indian export agents in Yiwu, China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Filippo Osella
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Export Trade ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Life World ◽  
Extreme Caution ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
World Centre

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic data collected in China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India, this article explores the life-world and practices of small-scale Indian export agents based in Yiwu, China, the world centre for the export of small commodities. It shows that in a market overdetermined by fast-moving goods, short-term gains, and low margins, export agents have to steer their way between acting with extreme caution or taking risks with their clients and suppliers. These apparently contradictory dispositions or orientations are negotiated by the judicious exercise of mistrust and suspicion. The article suggests not only that mistrust is valued and cultivated as an indispensable practical resource for success in Yiwu's export trade, but that contingent relations of trust between market players emerge at the interstices of a generalized mutual mistrust, via the mobilization of practices of hospitality, commensality, and masculine conviviality. Indeed, feelings of amity and mutuality elicited by the performance of modalities of social intimacy become the affective terrain upon which divergent economic interests might be reconciled and taken forward. That is, mistrust might not lead to generalized distrust, instead a situational or contingent trust might actually emerge through the judicious exercise of mistrust.

scholarly journals Qualitative Evaluation of Web-Based Digital Intervention to Prevent and Reduce Excessive Alcohol Use and Harm Among Young People Aged 14-15 Years: A “Think-Aloud” Study

10.2196/19749 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e19749
Author(s):  
Laura Elizabeth Tinner ◽  
Eileen Kaner ◽  
Claire Garnett ◽  
Siobhan Mitchell ◽  
Matthew Hickman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Young People ◽  
Think Aloud ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Social Pressures ◽  
Excessive Alcohol

Background In the United Kingdom, despite some downward trends in alcohol use among young people, over one-fifth of young people reported excessive alcohol use in the past month, which is associated with short- and long-term harm to health. Digital interventions to reduce alcohol use, such as websites, among young people present an appealing and cost-effective mode of intervention that can be integrated into the education system. However, relatively few school-based digital alcohol-focused interventions have been developed and evaluated for young people in the United Kingdom. Objective This study aims to develop a novel web-based intervention, Rethink Alcohol, to prevent and reduce excessive alcohol use and related harm among young people aged between 14 and 15 years, and explore the views of young people, teachers, and youth workers in relation to the content, design, and usability of the intervention. Methods Intervention development followed the person-based approach, using theories of social norms and social influence. Qualitative “Think-Aloud” interviews, either one-to-one or paired, were conducted while participants perused and worked through the web-based intervention, talking aloud. Participants included 20 young people (12 female, 8 male), 5 youth workers (4 female, 1 male), 3 teachers (2 male, 1 female), and 1 (male) clinical professional, recruited via youth groups and professional networks. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically. Results The prototype web-based intervention included normative feedback, information, a quiz, interactive activities, and scenarios. On a rating scale of impressions from poor (1) to excellent (5), participants gave an average score of 3.6/5. A total of 5 themes were identified: content, credibility of the website, making the website easy to understand, design and navigation, and suitability for the audience. These themes reflected views that the content was interesting, credible, informative, and embodied a neutral and nonjudgmental tone, but stronger messaging was needed regarding social pressures and short-term risks regarding safety and risk behavior alongside clarity around pathways of risk; credibility and trustworthiness of information were critical features, determined in part, by the professionalism of design and referencing of sources of information provided; and messages should be succinct and come to life through design and interactive features. Conclusions Together, the data illustrated the importance and challenge of communicating nuanced alcohol-focused public health messages to young people in concise, clear, nonjudgmental, and appealing ways. Young people report interest in clear, credible, neutral, and interactive messages regarding social pressures and short-term risks of alcohol use via a web-based intervention. There is scope for optimization and feasibility testing of the Rethink Alcohol intervention.

scholarly journals Speaking to My Ancestors: An Ethnographic Study of Lived Childhood Religion in Rural Gansu

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-206
Author(s):  
Joseph Chadwin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Gansu Province ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Rural Village ◽  
Ethnographic Data

AbstractThis article provides an overview of the major existing scholarship pertaining to childhood religion in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). More specifically, it examines lived childhood religion in a rural village in Gānsù province. This article challenges the commonly preconceived notion that children in the PRC do not regard religious belief as important and simply mirror the religious practices of their guardians. By utilising ethnographic data, I argue that children in the PRC are capable of constructing their own unique form of lived religion that is informed by, but crucially distinct from, the religious beliefs and practices of adults. The practices and beliefs of this lived religion can be extremely important to children and the evidence from fieldwork suggests that they tend to take both their practice and belief very seriously.

False Passports, Undocumented Workers, and Public (Dis)Order in Late-Eighteenth-Century Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-762
Author(s):  
Alison K Smith
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Undocumented Workers ◽  
Short Term ◽  
New Town ◽  
Illegal Behavior ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Significant Effort

Abstract In 1798, a case of suspected passport forgery in the new town of Gatchina brought to light an array of legal, semilegal, and totally illegal behavior when it came to tsarist Russia’s documentary requirements that governed mobility. Although there had been earlier kinds of documents required for travel, in the early eighteenth century, decrees established a system of short-term passports to allow a degree of mobility within a social structure based in binding legal statuses (soslovie) that tied nearly all subjects of the tsar to their localities or their owners. This specific case demonstrates that although the tsarist state clearly viewed this passport system as a method of social control, there were several significant limits to that control. First, documents were only reliable as long as they could be taken as truthful; cases of passport forgery like this showed how difficult it was for authorities to ascertain that truth. Second, the investigation uncovered many individuals who were negotiating (or sometimes ignoring) the passport system in ways that show the real limits of tsarist control. And third, the passport system took significant effort to maintain, effort that did not necessarily always seem worthwhile to some local authorities.

scholarly journals The Politics of the Digital Technoscape in Turkey: Surveillance and Resistance of Kurds

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 31-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burçe Çelik
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
State Form

AbstractThis paper explores how the state employs digital technologies in its pacification of dissident political bodies, subjectivities, and communicative capabilities. It explores strategies of resistance to the surveillance practices which come to the fore as a state form, as a means of social control, and as a mechanism for creating manageable and disciplined crowds. Drawing upon ethnographic data, it focuses on the contemporary politics of the Kurdish movement in Turkey. In particular, it analyses the digitized surveillance and resistance of Kurds, both of which function as crucial components of contemporary power regimes in Turkey.

Exploring emancipatory youth work

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Ngai Sek Yum
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Youth Workers

English The present study explores the possibility of emancipatory youth work from a Foucauldian perspective focusing on practitioners' potential as a force for change. Based on narratives generated from interviews with outreach youth workers in Hong Kong, the study shows how workers have invented their own style of liberating practice. The implications of the findings are discussed. French La présente étude explore les possibilités du travail d'émancipation auprès des jeunes selon une perspective foucaldienne focalisant sur le potentiel des praticiens comme moteur de changement. En se basant sur les récits obtenus à la suite d'entrevues avec des travailleurs de proximité auprès des jeunes à Hong Kong, l'étude montre comment ces travailleurs ont créé leur propre style de libération de la pratique. Les résultats de la recherche sont analysés. Spanish Se explora la posibilidad de trabajo emancipatorio con jóvenes desde una perspectiva foucauldiana, enfocándose en el potencial del trabajador social como una fuerza de cambio. Partiendo de narrativas generadas en entrevistas con trabajadores con jóvenes en el Hong Kong, el estudio muestra como estos trabajadores han inventado su propio estilo de práctica liberadora. Se exponen las implicaciones de los resultados.

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