The history of youth work in Europe and its relevance for youth policy today
Edited by Griet Verschelden, Filip Coussée, Tineke Van de Walle and Howard Williamson.
Council of Europe, 2009 978-92-871-6608-1
Youth work is a polyvalent and multi-faceted practice. It takes place in a wide range of settings, varies from unstructured activities to fairly structured programmes, reaches a diverse array of young people, touches upon many different themes and cuts across several other disciplines and practices. This versatility is one of the strengths of youth work, but at the same time it may lead to fragmentation and product vagueness.
In this book we take a historical perspective that aims to identify the close links between youth work developments and broader social, cultural and political developments. What are the beliefs and concepts that underpin youth work? How do they relate to the recurrent youth work paradox, that youth work produces active and democratic citizens but at the same time seems ineffective for young people who are excluded from active citizenship? Tracing back the roots of youth work and identifying different evolutions within and between countries help to initiate a fundamental discussion on modern-day youth work identity and to cope in a constructive way with the recurrent paradoxes of youth work.
The different authors highlight the youth work policies in Belgium (Flanders), Germany, England, Poland, Malta, France and Finland.
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Marti Taru, Filip Coussée and Howard Williamson (eds.)
Council of Europe, 2014. 978-92-871-7736-0
Since 2008, the European Union-Council of Europe youth partnership has regularly organised debates and discussions of the history of youth work policy and practice in various countries in Europe, in co-operation with its partners. The results have been published in three volumes of the Youth Knowledge Series.
Volume 4 of the History of youth work in Europe, edited by Marti Taru, Filip Coussée and Howard Williamson, covers the 2011 workshop in Tallinn, which was co-organised by the Estonian authorities with the support of Finnish and Flemish partners, and sums up the discussions in the previous three volumes.
Discussions on the history of youth work will continue, and will thematically build on the earlier events and findings: what is the identity of youth work? Where is youth work placed between private and public spaces? Where is the balance between autonomy and dependencies? Where is youth work going?
Readers are invited to actively contribute to these reflections.