In the context of English youth and community work, this research project investigates digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice, and proposes a model formulated through the identification of expansive drivers to guide both professional conduct and curriculum-based practice. The lives of English young people today are shaped by technologies which make interaction in a variety of digital spaces and places possible, yet there are divided views within the youth work community of practice about the place of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of informal learning in a discipline traditionally focused on association, relationships and critical dialogue. Supported by the conceptual framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Developmental Work Research (DWR) techniques have been used to gather data from four English youth and community work practitioners through a workshop-based approach framed by CHAT pre-suppositions and the first three stages of Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle. The data analysis uses the four areas where contradictions can manifest within CHAT activity systems to examine how the use of digital tools, spaces and places aligns with youth work values and principles, and to examine how they can mediate informal learning opportunities with young people. The contribution to knowledge comprises the identification of four ‘spaces’ which are named as safety, production, information and communication, and which form the basis of a model to scaffold the professional use of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice. Expansive drivers, defined as the forces for learning, development and change, are identified within each of the spaces within the model and examined using continuum-based representations portraying professional practice and curriculum-based priorities. Metaphors of digital space and place emerging from within the DWR process are also appraised as a means to situate the work. The model is underpinned firstly by the premise that a youth worker’s choice of digital tool, space or place needs to be based on the needs and input of young people. Secondly, that using digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice is most effective as an extension to existing face-to-face youth work where relationships between young people and youth workers have already been formed.

While many adolescents list unstructured "hangout" spaces as central to their social lives and activities, the availability of such spaces has dramatically declined in the last two decades, and attendance at afterschool programs has increased. Concurrently, these programs have drawn new scrutiny: from researchers eager to show their educational value, and from funders and policy makers seeking measureable evidence of that value. Even youth centers that were deliberately designed to give young people a space to "hang out" have been forced to reorganize due to the pressure to demonstrate program results. In this dissertation, through participant-observation, archival documents, and interviews with youth workers and young people, the author investigates and critiques the complex politics of representation in the funding, research, and day-to-day existence of one unstructured youth program, the Youth Action Alliance's offering known simply as Hang Out. Rather than producing a unified picture of Hang Out, the author takes a non-dialectic approach, using poststructuralist and posthuman theory to propose multiple plausible and powerful perspectives, and to explore their productive tensions with one another.

This thesis explores the use of feminist participatory action research (FPAR) within women-only youth and community work settings. The project investigated possibilities for flexible sports participation with non-sporty young women. Underpinned by poststructural feminism, the research considers the complex ways that gendered subjectivities are contested and constructed in relation to sporting embodiment and broader power relations. FPAR's, explicit aim is to affect positive social change. It is: participatory; defined by the need for action; and creates knowledge but not for the sake of knowledge alone. FPAR combines the sharing of common experiences of oppression with collective action. By using FPAR within youth and community settings over the course of 12 months, a group of young mums and a group of young women were encouraged to examine their relationship with physical activity and develop physical activity projects that suited their own needs. Research proceeded through three broad phases: interactive group discussion activities; planning of and participating in needs-led physical activity projects; and project evaluations. This project sought to find new ways of understanding young women’s engagement in physical activity and open up safe spaces for them to consider and experiment with new subjectivities and physically active subject positions. The thesis illuminates the highlights and challenges of implementing physical activity through participatory action research in youth work settings. Findings from the study outline the ways in which young women’s ‘non-sporty’ subjectivities are constructed in relation to discursive practices of gender. Young women’s critical reflections of previous experiences of physical activity revealed the workings of conflicting perceptions of valued emotional capital. The participatory projects provided opportunities for cross-field experiences, which shifted the social field of physical activity, and readdressed relations of power.

With origins in the South Bronx area of New York in the early 1970s, hip-hop culture is now produced and consumed globally. While hip-hop activities can be varied, hip-hop is generally considered to have four forms or “elements”: DJing, MCing, b-boying/b-girling, and graffiti. Although all four elements of hip-hop have become a part of many youth work initiatives across the globe, public debate and controversy continue to surround hip-hop activities. Very little research and literature has explored the complexities involved in the assembling of hip-hop activities in youth work sites of practice using these hip-hop elements. This study attends to the gap in hip-hop and human service literature by tracing how hip-hop activities were assembled in several sites of youth work activity in Christchurch, New Zealand. Actor-network theory (ANT) is the methodological framework used to map the assemblage of hip-hop-youth work activities in this study. ANT follows how action is distributed across both human and non-human actors. By recognising the potential agency of “things”, this research traces the roles played by human actors, such as young people and youth workers, together with those of non-human actors such as funding documents, social media, clothing, and youth venue equipment. This ethnographic study provides rich descriptions or “snapshots” of some of the key socio-material practices that shaped the enactment of hip-hop-youth work activities. These are derived from fieldwork undertaken between October 2009 and December 2011, where participant observation took place across a range of sites of hip-hop-youth work activity. In addition to this fieldwork, formal interviews were undertaken with 22 participants, the majority being youth workers, young people, and youth trust administrators. The ANT framework reveals the complexity of the task of assembling hip-hop in youth work worlds. The thesis traces the work undertaken by both human and non-human actors in generating youth engagement in hip-hop-youth work activities. Young people’s hip-hop interests are shown to be varied, multiple, and continually evolving. It is also shown how generating youth interest in hip-hop-youth work activities involved overcoming young people’s indifference or lack of awareness of the hip-hop resources a youth trust had on offer. Furthermore, the study highlights where hip-hop activities were edited or “tinkered” with to avoid hip-hop “bads”. The thesis also unpacks how needed resources were enlisted, and how funders’ interests were translated into supporting hip-hop groups and activities. By tracing the range of actors mobilised to enact hip-hop-youth work activities, this research reveals how some youth trusts could avoid having to rely on obtaining government funds for their hip-hop activities. The thesis also includes an examination of one youth trust’s efforts to reconfigure its hip-hop activities after the earthquakes that struck Christchurch city in 2010 and 2011. Working both in and on the world, the text that is this thesis is also understood as an intervention. This study constitutes a deliberate attempt to strengthen understandings of hip-hop as a complex, multiple, and fluid entity. It therefore challenges traditional media and literature representations that simplify and thus either stigmatise or celebrate hip-hop. As such, this study opens up possibilities to consider the opportunities, as well as the complexities of assembling hip-hop in youth work sites of practice.

The current study analyzes the official policies and everyday practices of the youth non-governmental organization System and G, located in Komotini, Greece. Through a combination of Critical Policy Analysis, Interviews and Participatory Observation, this Thesis provides a broad image of the organization’s internal culture, with great emphasis on the relations among its members. The results showed that the organization’s philosophy, causes and corresponding policies have emerged from its founders’ personal life experiences, which motivated them for social offer to people with fewer opportunities, developed through cooperation with other youth workers, equally motivated to help people in need, and changed with the contribution of volunteers – also people with fewer opportunities – with innovative ideas and ambition to bring social change. As a result, an intersectional culture has grown in the organization, which is characterized by diversity, emotional proximity, mutual support and solidarity.             The study also analyzes the organization’s social stratification and power relations, which are characterized by equality among all its members, making trainers and volunteers feel that their voice is heard and appreciated. Therefore, the organization succeeds in the achievement of all forms of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interactional). What is more, important decision-making within the organization requires the equal participation of trainers and volunteers alike, while when it comes to decisions with an impact on local society, the organization gives its members the opportunity to express their opinion and design social policies through cooperation with local entrepreneurs, politicians and other decision-makers. In this way, organizational and social change are achieved and promoted. The future of the organization includes its members’ ambition to spread the methods and results of non-formal education to other regions and countries, and I consider myself lucky and honored to be part of this effort.

SOUZA, A. C. Tecnomoda no semi-árido: escola de moda para transformação no campo do trabalho. 2011. 164 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Avaliação de Políticas Públicas) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Pro - Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Avaliação de Políticas Públicas, Fortaleza, 2011. / Submitted by Ana Paula Paula (mappufce@gmail.com) on 2012-03-21T13:24:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_Dis_ArtemisiaCSOUZA.pdf: 9481343 bytes, checksum: 47a47e3b0c198c79941010781eb0d7bd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-03-22T13:29:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_Dis_ArtemisiaCSOUZA.pdf: 9481343 bytes, checksum: 47a47e3b0c198c79941010781eb0d7bd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-22T13:29:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_Dis_ArtemisiaCSOUZA.pdf: 9481343 bytes, checksum: 47a47e3b0c198c79941010781eb0d7bd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / The content of this research was produced out of the necessity to evaluate the social project “Technodesign in the Semi-Dry Land: School of Design in Fashion and Craftsmanship”, focusing in its consequences, as an instrument of qualification and intervention to the definition of public policies for the municipality of Tejuçuoca-CE, located at the Retiro Village, where the project originated. The proposal of the aforementioned school seeks to improve the level of professional qualification of young students, aiming to facilitate their immersion into local markets, serving as an alternative to the unemployment crisis, via the inclusion of young students into the market. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the qualification developed in the essence of the tripod of fashion design, technology and craftsmanship, hoping to identify the potential of inclusion of the public. Its intension, according to the results presented, is to offer subsidies and references to the construction of future projects to the inclusion of young students in the perspective of fashion design and craftsmanship. The project brings hopes that the publication of the results will motivate other groups and associations to invest in the potential of young students. Finally, for the realization of this study, as well as the biographical and documental research, inspired in the theoretical basis and in the data records of the project, a campus research was developed, utilizing interviews as its main data gathering tool, which allowed for a trustworthy gathering of information from important participants of the project, as well as other information, was the result of the observation of the coordinator and instructor of the referred project. / O conteúdo desta pesquisa foi produzido a partir da necessidade de avaliar o projeto social “Tecnomoda no Semi-Árido: Escola de Design em Moda e Artesanato”, enfocando suas conseqüências, como instrumento de capacitação e intervenção para a definição de políticas públicas para o município de Tejuçuoca-CE, na localidade de Vila Retiro, lócus da concepção do projeto. A proposta da referida escola visava melhorar o nível de capacitação profissional dos jovens, com o objetivo de ingresso no mercado de trabalho local, constituindo-se uma alternativa em meio à crise do desemprego e via de inclusão da juventude. O estudo teve como objetivo principal, avaliar a capacitação desenvolvida no âmbito do tripé moda, tecnologia e artesanato, na esperança de tracejar o potencial de inclusão do público atendido. Tem como pretensão, conforme os resultados apresentados, fornecer subsídios e referências para a construção de projetos futuros para a inclusão de jovens na perspectiva de moda e artesanato. Acreditando que, com a divulgação dos resultados, seja possível ampliar o conhecimento de novas alternativas, e ainda, ter a capacidade de motivar outros grupos e associações, na acepção de investimento no potencial de jovens com os quais estão envolvidos. Fundamentalmente, para a realização deste estudo, além da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, inspirada nas bases teóricas e nos registros do projeto, foi desenvolvida pesquisa de campo, empregando a entrevista como principal técnica de coleta de dados, que permitiu angariar informações dos principais atores sociais envolvidos e ainda, outras informações, foram resultado da observação participante como coordenadora e instrutora do referido projeto.

England and Wales have the same criminal justice system, but devolution in Wales has created some differences between the two countries. In Wales all child and young person related services, with the exception of youth justice, are devolved to the Welsh Government. It is claimed by some that devolution has resulted in youth justice policy in Wales diverging from that of England. This is because of the Welsh Government’s adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been incorporated into its domestic legislation. This is not mirrored in England, as the UK Government’s youth justice policies during the New Labour period have been characterised as punitive, risk-led and managerialist. Although attitudes and approaches changed during the Coalition Government’s administration, the fundamental features of the system have not. Youth justice in Wales has been described as taking a ‘children first, offenders second’ approach to children and young people in trouble with the law, which by inference suggests the opposite for youth justice in England. The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a different youth justice in Wales. This was done by scrutinising a range of evidence that included the policies of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales and the Welsh Government and the interface and relationship between them, to determine what youth justice in Wales looks like and how it compares to youth justice in England. This was supported by an analysis of YJB data about the operation of the system, which disaggregated information about Wales from national statistics, to establish if outcomes for young people in Wales differed from their counter-parts in England. Finally, the perspectives of practitioners in two youth offending teams in England and two in Wales were explored to establish what their practice cultures looked like and the extent to which practitioners had similar or different views about how the system should and does operate, whether a ‘children first’ philosophy is dominant in Wales and how this relates to the policy positions of the respective governments.

The motivation for the thesis was to discover whether Finnish Red Cross Youth Shelters can be evaluated and developed from legal and moral standpoints, such as the Human Rights. A special focus is put on how the international law gets interpreted and practiced in a local (Youth Shelter) context. Findings from the collected data are based on the experiences of the Youth Shleter’s employees and volunteers through workshop discussions, surveys and interviews. This observational work done within the thesis is an initial mapping of how “things are at the moment”. Data is analysed with The New Legal Realism (NLR) theory, which main focus is to study law’s context-based interpretations and mobility ie. how international law creates meanings in a local setting. (Dagan & Kreitner, 2018; 534.) The value of the findings will increase through new ideas, support measures and a better identification of the needs of employees and volunteers arising from the findings. The observational work is inspired by the idea that if someone has an obligation to ensure rights, they are also entitled to get support with knowledge of how to implement them properly.

The phenomenon of cutting is extremely complex, as is the care of those who engage in it. This work provides exhaustive knowledge of the kinds of clinical interpretations of cutting that exist and interventions offered to curb this maladaptive behavior. It empowers volunteer youth workers to feel more confident in responding to young women who are cutting. It also encourages those who work in evangelical Christian contexts to draw carefully, cautiously, and judiciously, from the resources of their faith tradition as their contribution to the care of young women who cut.

The objective of this research study is the examination of the ideas about youth work found within the leadership team for the youth work of the Evangelical St. Reinoldi Chapel, Rupelrath. It investigates the way in which the team leaders' subjective understanding of youth work is affected by theological tensions, following David Bosch's approach “Mission in Creative Tension”. Following the Empirical-Theological Praxis Cycle, a qualitative analysis is carried out within the context of the youth leadership team of the Evangelical youth work. Data collection is undertaken in the form of a group workshop, data analysis in accordance with Grounded Theory. The results are utilised in order to develop a Dialogical Model for Transformative Youth Work as well as guiding principles for youth work with a missiological foundation. This study also aims to contribute to the development of a missiological rationale for youth work. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology