RC 34 Board Meeting 24. March 2001-03-23 Aylesbury, UK
Minutes Those present: Lynne Chisholm (LAC) President, Claire Wallace (CW) Secretary, Lyudmila Nurse (LN) Vice President Russian Federation, Jürgen Hartmann (JH) Vice President Europe, Carles Feixa (CF) Hispanic Coordinator, Gunilla Holm (GH) Vice President North America, Sylvia Trnka (ST) Advisory Board, Carmen Leccardi (CL) Advisory Board LAC expressed special thanks to the Hart Group and to LN for organising the meeting; to CF, who participates in a Board Meeting for the first time; and to GH, who came especially from the USA to take part. 1. Minutes of last meeting Accepted unanimously. 2. Matters arising European Commission’s Lisbon Conference May 2000. In follow-up: A White Paper on Youth is under preparation, due for publication in autumn 2001. The consultation process has included a “researchers pillar” in which LAC and CL have participated, and which delivered its report to the recent Umeå conference under the patronage of the Swedish EU Presidency. Documentation is available via the europa server. LAC has also been invited to make a presentation to the European Parliament Hearing on the White Paper in late April. CL will produce a text “A week in the life of..” (Action: CL). Updating of Brochure. CW will update and send out to everyone electronically (Action: CW) Walddorf summit could not take place in Autumn 2000, but is planned for Autumn 2001. RC34’s Mid-term report to the ISA has been prepared by LAC and is available on the IBYR website. 3. Activities
a. Events since June 2000 ISA Mid-term conference, Montreal (28-30 July 2000) JH reported from the Research Council meeting on the discussion about World Congress session allocations for RCs under the new rules relating to number of members in good standing. It is likely that those RCs who can make a good case by the end of this year for receiving more session allocations will be accommodated. The problem may well be not that there are not enough contributors rather than too many, because of the expense of getting to Brisbane. 2nd Young Youth Researchers Training Seminar Budapest Sept. 2000 This is now an annual event; the third in the series will be held in September 2001. It has become a successful example of co-operation between RC34 and the Council of Europe. Information about the seminar is to be put onto the IBYR website (Action: HH) Asian Research Symposium, 1-5 December, Macao. Ultimately RC34 was able to facilitate the participation of a small number of its members, who were well looked after by Songxing Su (VP Asia). LAC has requested that the Board receive, where possible, more advance notice of these kinds of events, as finding the time and funding to attend is very difficult for most Committee members. It was noted that the Board could try to arrange a lecture tour/study visit to a series of universities and institutes in order to intensify its cooperation with the Asian region. ST expressed the thanks of RC53 (Childhood) committee for offering its Committee members the chance to participate in the Macao conference, following the cancellation of the planned co-operation with the Jaipur conference. The Board expressed its firm wish to continue active cooperation with RC53. MA Youth Studies at University of Leida. CF reported on this successful initiative, in which RC34 acts as a professional co-sponsor. A two-year part-time degree for researcher, policymakers and practitioners, it attracted 70 applications in its first year, including from Latin America. 40 candidates were accepted and LAC contributed to the first year’s teaching programme. There is much interest in developing this into a modular degree in cooperation with other European universities; Board members expressed their enthusiasm for the idea and suggested that in time, it could develop into a doctoral programme and integrate an international dimension (trans-Atlantic, SE Asia ..). The Board congratulated CF for his excellent initiative and committed itself to working towards its further development. b. Forthcoming Events Conference on Youth Unemployment and Citizenship in the High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia 26-30 May 2001 Those Committee and Board members participating can travel together on Sat. 26th May from Vienna. LM, CW and LAC can offer car places. A supplementary RC34 Board RC 34 will be held on Sunday 27th or Monday 28th in the morning. The conference begins on Monday 28th afternoon, and interpretation between Slovak and English will be provided. Committee members wishing to take part can still contact Ladislav Machacek (Treasurer) to arrange this. Youth, Family and Intergenerational relations conference (20-22nd September 2001), Milan This conference, at the initiative of CL, is co-sponsored by the University of Milan-Bicocca, the European Observatory on Family Matters (Vienna), RC34 and the Italian Sociological Association. There has been a good response to the call for papers, and it is intended to invite prominent European figures from the policy world (e.g. Jacques Delors) to take part in a round table in the concluding session. LN will co-ordinate with CL and ST to try to see if funding for East European citizens can be found, and CL will endeavour to extend the registration deadline to enable more time to find support for attending. The conference proceedings will be published. The Board congratulated CL, ST and CW for their good work on this initiative. 3rd Young Youth researchers training seminar, 4-9th September 2001, Budapest LAC, CF and Sven Mørch (longstanding RC34 Committee member) will be on the tutor team. This seminar is a means of extending and consolidating European and international youth research networks, especially drawing in upcoming generations of researchers. Participants’ expenses are covered by the Council of Europe (if their applications are accepted). If anyone knows of anyone who wants to go, please contact Irena.Guidikova@coe.int at the Council of Europe’s Youth Directorate. c. Forward Planning Youth Studies Forum “Youth and Net” 8-10th May 2002 CF reported that a workshop in Barcelona on the information society as part of the Lleida Youth Studies M. A. is being planned. An RC34 Board meeting will be scheduled around the workshop. 2nd RC34 Summer School in Latin America The Board agreed on the dates 1-7 April 2002 in Buenos Aires (host institute: FLASCO), alternatively possibly in Mexico. CF circulated a draft proposal to be developed for making funding applications. LAC will write to René Bendit (German Youth Institute), a former RC34 Committee member, suggesting that he rejoin and join the managing team for this event. (Action: CF and LAC) The Board welcomed the progress made and underlined that each RC34 summer school should reflect different cultural and social issues depending upon the area of the world on which they are based. In general, the Board is keen to intensify its cooperation with the Latin and South American region, including looking for a good VP for the region from 2002. LAC had received a letter last year from Elizeu Chaves, offering to take on this job, but as yet she is not a member of RC34; it was suggested that she join, and that she participate in the Latin American summer school next year if possible. CW to chase up on the membership question. (Action: CW) Young youth researchers training seminar, Moscow 2002 LN and Julia Zubok (Russian Coordinator) are leading this initiative. The Board agreed that RC34 would form a consortium with the Russian Sociological Society and make joint funding applications.
4. Brisbane World Congress The Board based its discussion on the documents circulated by LAC prior to the meeting. The points arising included: The new system of electronic registration may mean that abstracts will first be sent from the ISA or by individuals to RC programme coordinators (for RC34, this is LAC). Session organisers should nevertheless retain the job of deciding whether to accept an abstract and hence approving the registration. It was agreed that this principle would be applied in the case of RC34, but that abstracts would be systematically communicated between LAC and the session organisers, regardless of the person to whom these are sent in the first instance. Those abstracts not initially accepted by a session organiser will be retained on a waiting list, as some participants will certainly drop out at a later date. When the session contents are finalised once and for all, those on the waiting list will be offered the opportunity to join in some form of poster session. All are asked to note the deadline for receipt of abstracts by session organisers is 15 November 2001. In accepting abstracts and planning the format and content of the sessions, RC34 will
• strive to achieve a better balance between South, North, East and West both for papers and for session organisers; session organisers are responsible for implementing this policy to the best of their ability on the basis of proposals received, but not at the expense of disregarding quality;
• ensure that session organisers take their responsibilities seriously – those who are not formally registered with the ISA for WC participation by the end of 2001 will be replaced forthwith;
• exercise reasonable firmness on session content and format. Not everyone named for a session need actually present their paper in a formal sense, and it might be less stressful for many people not to have to do so, especially for those who are not professionally fluent in English, French or Spanish;
• take the multi-lingual and multi-cultural issue seriously, in accordance with our published language policy; this implies that session organisers are enjoined to find ways to facilitate innovative ways to present and discuss ideas and papers (e.g. powerpoint summaries in different languages; securing volunteers to provide whispering summaries or to translate questions and answers; round tables; videos and other visual forms of presentation; have papers presented as critical summaries by participants other than the authors themselves).
It was agreed that a call to the membership would be sent out immediately following the Board meeting, including a shorter version of the documents circulated to the Board and an introductory text explaining the purpose of the call in English, French, Spanish and Russian. Members’ comments on the draft WC programme (including proposals for amendments and additions) and offers to become a session co-organiser should be forwarded to LAC by the end of April, so that the programme can be finalised and session organisers selected in time to meet the ISA deadline at the end of May. These documents will also be placed on the IBYR website, which will contain information on the WC programme planning as a matter of cours from now on. (Action: LAC, CF, LN with HH and CW) In order to ensure that the planned RC34 programme can absolutely rely on session organisers who will do a good job whatever happens, a “shadow structure” made up of Board members was drawn up (to be circulated to the Board separately), but the main aim is to attract two organisers per session, at least one of whom should not be a Board member and for which priority would be given, where candidates come forward, to offers from the “South” and “East” in global terms. It was agreed to request basic professional information from those indicating an interest in co-organising a session, in order to try to achieve both balance and quality as far as possible. A working subcommittee to coordinate plans for publications arising from the WC was established: LAC, HH, GH, LN and ST. (This also coordinates with the plans for the RC34 history project). A number of proposals for joint sessions with other RCs were voiced; the various proposers are to pursue these and furnish LAC with the outcomes by mid-May 2001 latest. 5 Activity Plan LAC had prepared an updated version for final correction at the meeting, and this will replace the version currently on the IBYR website. (Action: HH and CW) 6 History of RC 34 book LN had prepared an updated planning document for circulation to the meeting. The outcome of this project will be presented in a WC session to celebrate our 25th birthday, which should also include a round table amongst key figures from the RC’s history and development. A great deal of work remains to be done if the deadline is to be met, but all those present expressed their continuing commitment. LN will now compile an archive of all relevant documentation and a list of all those who might provide relevant information. The work will then be distributed amongst those who have agreed to prepare the various sections. It was agreed that an initial print-run of 500 copies would be necessary; the length should not exceed 100 pages. Good quality presentation, including photo reproduction, is essential (orientation: Jennifer Platt’s History of the ISA brochure distributed to members at the Montréal WC). Ladislav Machacek could provide 200 copies for $750, but with a quality level as for the old paper IBYR, which was felt insufficient in view of the brochure’s longer-term public relations function (to send to potential activity funders, to give to new members, etc.). This should be a good quality product carrying an ISBN number and potentially capable of being sold at cost via the IBYR website. Whilst RC34 ommittee funds could be allocated, the maximum would be 1000 EURO, and this is probably not enough. Hence, a co-sponsor is required (possibly a special edition of the Journal of Youth Studies, or carrying promotional material from Carfax or other academic publishers) and a more attractive title (e.g. Youth between two centuries). Alternatives include publication via a university’s in-house publisher (e.g. Dalarna in Sweden – JH to make inquiries) or other channels in CEE countries (LN to make inquiries in Romania). In considering how to raise the potential attractiveness of the publication, consensus converged around the idea that it should include critical reflections of youth research and policy in a global perspective – becoming something more like an intellectual and political history of youth studies rather than solely a history of RC34. It was pointed out that there is clear evidence that the international community influences developments in national communities, which emerges from the history of the ISA itself very well. These reflections ultimately produced a revised proposal to see the project as having two stages with different scopes and purposes as follows: Stage A: Produce a snappy and attractive brochure ready for distribution at the Brisbane WC, and which would subsequently be posted for downloading on the IBYR website. The focus would be on RC34’s history and development, but would point the way to a larger-scale project. LN and ST will co-manage this project through to publication. This brochure will contain, with reference to RC34 only:
• Introduction
• Legacy and heritage
• Research agendas from different regions
• Youth research and global politics
• The way we were (amusing anecdotes and photos)
• Pithy ending
• Appendix – chronology of events and persons
Technical details:
• 50-60pp; 4-6pp per section
• 2,500 characters per page – including spaces.
• Assembled first drafts of all chapters ready by 31st August 2001.
• Next deadline: 31st November 2001: revised drafts plus introduction for discussion at the Walddorf Summit in December 2001 (dates see further below) Typesetting in Jan/Feb 2002, to press March 2002 Ready for distribution in July 2002 at Brisbane WC
Stage B: The Brisbane WC birthday celebration session would be the launching-pad for writing a broader and generally reflective book along the lines sketched out above: A critical History of Youth Studies in Global Perspective. HH and GH will prepare an outline book proposal to be submitted to commercial publishers. Editorship of both products will be collective (= ISA RC34) with a list of those who have actively contributed and coordinated on the inside page. Everyone who contributes to this project is part of it, so no arguments! 6 Communications and Promotions Membership benefits: YOUNG: Nordic Journal of Youth Research: Members of RC34 can subscribe at a special price ($25-30). If they subscribe before June 1st (request for extension of this deadline will be made) each subscription will pay for an additional free subscription for another RC34 member. That way we can help those in less affluent parts of the world to have access to YOUNG. Journal of Youth Studies: LAC has written to Carfax asking for special reduced rates. IBYR website: The ISA RC Newsletter grant of $300 has been received from Madrid and transferred to HH to pay running costs. The Board reconfirmed the policy that reading access to the website is open to all, but placing text on the website is open to RC34 members in good standing only. Clear information on how to join RC34 should be on the website and an explicit link to the ISA website should be assured. (Action: HH and CW) Information about the RC34 Brisbane WC programme will also be regularly posted from now on, and there should be a direct link to the ISA WC registration site. (Action: HH) Board meeting minutes will henceforth be placed on the website as a matter of course, following approval from LAC to HH. HH asked for people to review books for the homepage. This is an opportunity to review books published across the globe and in languages other than the ISA official languages (EN,FR,ES) and provide access to their contents for those who cannot read or buy them directly. Authors can also review/summarise their own books if they wish. HH will send an email to all members about this. (Action: HH) Young Youth Researchers Essay Competition JH was asked to draw up proposal for essay competition together with Johanna Wynn for Autumn Board meeting (Action: JH) 7 Finance and Membership The RC34 account currently holds 32.599 Austrian Schillings (2.369,11 EURO). It was agreed to set aside 1.000 EURO for the Stage A publication “History of RC34”. RC34 has 80 full members, 2 affiliated members and 1 institutional membership. Many memberships expire at the end of 2001, but we expect that renewals will be made in anticipation of the WC Brisbane and that we shall also gain new members as a result. 8 Relations with other groups The Board emphasised its appreciation of the positive development of co-operative liaison with the University of Lleida and the Generalitat de Catalunya, and with the positive start made to co-operate more closely with Latin and South America. The Board also expressed its continuing appreciation of the positive relations it enjoys with the Council of Europe’s Youth Directorate. 9 Dates of next meetings Sunday 27 May 2001, High Tatra, Slovak Republic Sunday 23 September 2001, Milan 1-2 December 2001, Walddorf Summit Minutes prepared 21 April 2001 (CW) Minutes approved for distribution 28 April 2001 (LAC)