Introduction Filip Coussee This conference has a history

Youth work: what, why, how? Blankenberge 2008 and sequel 2009 Gent 2010 Youth work’s efficiency? Youth work contributes to active citizenship, but is not very accessible for excluded young people How to organise youth work – how to increase efficiency? Counterproductive policies- Formalising the informal What is (good) youth work? Why youth work? Identity crisis

Why history? Starting point for reflection beyond self- referential processes and myopic views Orientation in debate on future challenges Youth and youth work are social constructions – Not a hard and fast youth work concept – But convictions and concepts underpinning youth work and questioning self-evidencies

Aims of Blankenberge I Reflection on the history of youth work and youth policy Identifying links between youth work/ youth policy and socio- cultural-political context Building an international comparative perspective Putting the history of youth work and youth policy on the European agenda

Programme Blankenberge I 7 country reports – Belgium – France – Germany – UK (England) – Malta – Finland – Poland

Report: main issues shifting presentations of youth work as distinct field? (between school and social care): What is youth work? the pedagogy and politics of youth work and youth policy? (citizenship education and ideas of the good society): Why youth work? Recurrent problems concerning youth work as policy and practice? (informal learning black box and outcome focused policies): How do we realize youth work?

Conclusions Youth work is “social pedagogical work” Between: – Lifeworld and system, private aspirations and public expectations – the social question and the youth question Increasing focus on psychological and sociological questions Over-emphasizing the youth question escaping the inherent tensions: – de-socializing youth work: focus on individual outcomes – de-pedagogisation youth work: focus on access to youth work Formalising the informal – More efficient youth work

Methodical = Abstraction of context - do you know that there are young working class people with problems of their own? - I do not know young workers, I only know young citizens and I want to create strong- willed young men. -do you know how young workers have to survive in factories, how they are influenced by “workers’ environment”. How could we help them to stay “good” or even to have a good influence in their environment? -I don’t know the workers’ environment!

Blankenberge II New country reports – Belgium (Dutch-, German- and French-speaking communities) – The Netherlands – Russia – Ireland – UK (Wales) – Hungary And – European level youth policies – South Africa

Conclusion II Youth work = Social work practice The (re)invention of the social: post-communist, post- colonial, post-welfare The social as a transit-zone: guiding young people to integrate in the social order – Youth work instrument for social education The social as a forum: discussing the way we relate to each other and the conditions that structure those relationships – Youth work social educational practice

privatepublic SOCIAL Transit zone Forum Personal advisers, Social educators, Public employees

policy – practice - research Role of the state and role of youth work in management of the social ? Instrumentalisation and professional autonomy Professionalisation Joined up or isolated Accessibility or quality Outcomes Evidence? ‘Non-organised’ youth Voluntary participation Girls ‘work …

Blankenberge III 19 working groups Regional workshops: Serbia, Austria Thematic workshops: focus on recurrent themes (professionalism, youth culture, accessibility, …) Methodical workshops: focus on different youth work shapes and methods (open youth work, holiday camps, youth organisations, …) 3 Introductory ‘panel debates’ 4 keynote speeches: Hugh Cunningham, Walter Baeten, David Hansen, Herman Balthazar

Conclusie III Youth work is a dynamic field of tension Do not “de-tension” Three historical functions: – Pedagogical: producing active citizens – Social: redistribution of access to resources – Recreational: as a method to learn, as a method to attract

Youth work, an oxymoronic practice Transitional forum? Keeping up the tension Social work between public services and private associations The (re)invention of the social: post-communist, post-colonial, post-welfare New public management? back to the future?

We make the road by walking Paolo Freire and Myles Horton