A better understanding of youth work’s historical links with social work can help us to shape its relationship with social work in the future.
This sixth publication in the History of Youth Work in Europe project based on the workshop held in Malta – Connections, Disconnections and Reconnections: The Social Dimension of Youth Work, in History and Today – looks at the relationship between youth work and social work and the role youth work can play in the social inclusion of young people. Contributors have reflected on concepts, tools and support measures for more vulnerable and often socially excluded young people and have sought to promote a common understanding of youth work as a social practice.
The workshop that led to this book sought to understand where youth work has positioned itself from its origins, through its development, to its contemporary identity. Is youth work as much a social practice as a non-formal educational one? Where does the balance between these two dimensions lie? What are the mutually enriching dimensions of these two fields in terms of their impact on young people’s lives?
While most agree that youth work needs to be further defined as a practice or profession in itself and that the process of shaping its identity continues in different ways in different countries, it is clear that when it comes to a cross-sectoral perspective and youth work’s interaction with social work, the picture becomes significantly more complex, arguably much richer and certainly more dynamic than might have hitherto been foreseen.
PREFACE – Tanya Basarab, Hanjo Schild and Jan Vanhee
INTRODUCTION – Howard Williamson
PART I – YOUTH WORK AND SOCIAL WORK
Chapter 1 – Youth transition regimes and youth work (Axel Pohl)
Chapter 2 – Youth work and social work in the German context (Christian Spatscheck)
Chapter 3 – The tradition of youth work in Hungary: the onion model (Ádám Nagy and Dániel Oross)
Chapter 4 – Youth work and social work in the Slovak Republic: connections and disconnections (Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová, Peter Lenčo and Jana Miháliková)
Chapter 5 – Youth work and youth justice in England and Wales: the history of a tense and troubled relationship (Mick Conroy)
Chapter 6 – Two see-saws in motion: youth work and social work in Italy (Daniele Morciano and Armida Salvati)
Chapter 7 – The “social” in youth work: snapshots of Finnish youth work policy and history (Juha Nieminen and Anu Gretschel)
Chapter 8 – Youth work and social work relations in Estonia (Edgar Schlümmer)
Chapter 9 – The past made us : perspectives on the development of youth work and social work in Malta (Miriam Teuma)
Chapter 10 – From mutual ignorance to ignorance? Youth work and social work in France since 1945 (Laurent Besse and Jérome Camus)
Chapter 11 – The relationship between youth work and social work in Sweden (Björn Andersson)
PART II – TWO MORE HISTORIES
Chapter 12 – A new kid on the block: youth work meets youth policy in Croatia (Marko Kovačić and Bojana Ćulum)
Chapter 13 – A brief history of youth work in Spain (Rafa Merino, Carles Feixa and Almudena Moreno)
Chapter 14 – Multiple opinions: the challenges of youth work and social work (Howard Williamson, Filip Coussée and Tanya Basarab)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
