The Future of Education and Youth Work: Approaches and Practices around the World

 

Youth Work initiatives appeared during the Industrial Revolution and the 19^th urban concentration. They were organised activities, aiming to instil values and principles to young people living in big towns. In these early times, Youth Work was faith-based, or based around military values. Since that time, there has been enormous growth and tremendous changes in the field. In one way or another, Youth Work activities are organised and implemented all around the world. In addition, philosophies, aims and objectives of Youth Work practices are context-dependent and more diverse than ever. On the one hand, the term Youth Work, although significantly controversial and open to interpretation, offers a minimum of universal understanding. On the other, Youth Work is still far from a common definition among different contexts.

Diverse social, political and historical realities of each community, country and region, shape differences in Youth Work conceptualisation and practice around the world. In the theoretical domain, historical and cultural realities define the way in which policy-makers, stakeholders and citizens perceive Youth Work. In the field, the planning and implementation of Youth Work activities, depend on the local, national or regional needs of young people. Moreover, capacities of providers and receivers of Youth Work, determine the methods and tools used for the activities.

The aims of the conference are: 1) To attract and analyse different definitions of Youth Work, 2) to Offer space to Anthropological approaches to Youth Work 3) To host the presentation of distinct Youth Work practices, 4) to facilitate a debate on various field work experiences from different contexts, 5) to juxtapose practitioners’ and researchers’ perspectives, 6) to consider comparative macro, meso and micro analyses on Youth Work theories, policies, practices and challenges and, 7) To bring together approaches by project managers and trainers from the field of youth.

We welcome analysis of:

1. African Youth Work approaches: theory and practice
2. Asian Youth Work approaches: theory and practice
3. Anthropological approaches to Youth Work practices
4. Comparative Youth Work analyses
5. Faith-based Youth Work
6. Histories of Youth Work
7. Interdisciplinary approaches to Youth Work
8. Political approaches to Youth Work
9. Project Management models for Youth Work
10. Psychology and Youth Work
11. Public Policies and Youth
12. Social Approaches
13. Social Policies for Youth
14. Syntheses of Youth Work Strategies
15. Theorising on Youth Work
16. Youth Work Best Practices exchange in a globalised world
17. Youth Work methods and learning tools case studies
18. Other innovative approaches to Youth Work

Important Dates and Deadlines

1 February 2017: Submission of Abstracts Opening

30 April 2017: Submission of Abstracts Deadline

15 May 2017: Notification of Accepted Participants

31 July 2017: Submission of Draft Papers

1 October 2017: Submission of Final papers and Registration of Presenters Deadline

30 November – 2 December 2017: Youth Work Approaches and Practices around the World Conference takes place in Athens, Greece

Submit your abstracts until 30 April 2017 at the Abstract Submission form HERE

A stipend, partially covering travel expenses and accommodation, will be granted to selected contributions

The conference is organised by Inter Alia under the Mission Responsible Project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.