Young people as global citizens: negotiation of youth civic participation in adult-managed online spaces

With the proliferation of new media technologies, online spaces for civic engagement are being used as new sites by the young people for enacting global citizenship. Some of these online civic spaces are managed by parent organizations and guide the participants towards accomplishing goals that align with the institutional policies. We use Stuart Hall’s theoretical framework to ground the two methods we used for empirical research- textual analysis of the selected online spaces and in-depth interviews with young bloggers. Our analysis shows how negotiated reading of the encoded messages on the online platforms for youth civic engagement marks a political moment of signification in which there lies a possibility of challenging the dominance of the adult centered notions of civic engagement. Shelat’s online civic culture framework [2014. “Citizens, Global Civic Engagement on Online Platforms: Women as Transcultural Citizens.” Dissertation] helped us examine how these managed platforms encode global citizenship with pre-designed participatory practices that reinforce the hegemonic definition of youth political participation. Interviews of young bloggers on two online global spaces foreground the process of negotiation with the dominant definitions and the use of decoding strategies to create scope for subjective, more local definitions, as well as practices of civic engagement and global citizenship. Though literature suggests that adult-management of online youth spaces perpetuate a gap between the adult-centric notions of participation and the youth oriented ideas of civic engagement, our study reveals that the young participants find ways of articulating their ideas and enter these spaces with plans on how to fulfill their civic goals.     

Business and politics in the United States and United Kingdom

Theory and Society - A central objective of the business mobilization of the late 1970s and early 1980s in both the United States and Great Britain was to restore company profits to levels of an...     

Young Fatherhood and Subsequent Disadvantage in the United Kingdom

Although there has been increasing attention to the importance of fathers and their relationships with their children, few studies have examined young parenthood and its consequences for fathers’ life chances. In recent years, this has begun to change, and research is examining, to a far greater extent, the experiences of young fathers. Using data from a cohort of British men born in 1970, this paper uses a propensity score–matching technique to compare the well‐being of 344 men who reported becoming fathers before the age of 22 with men from similar backgrounds who did not. The findings suggest that selection into young fatherhood is substantial but, for some outcomes, significant differences remain.     

Generosity vs. Altruism: Philanthropy and Charity in the United States and United Kingdom

This paper presents a comparative analysis of giving ethos and behavior in the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular the relationship of giving to civic life. Obvious disparities between the two countries exist when overall levels of giving are considered. In the United States, individual giving as a percentage of gross national or domestic product has consistently hovered around 2% of Gross Domestic Product. By contrast, charitable giving in the United Kingdom has yet to reach 1% of GDP. The paper identifies the differences in giving ethos and behavior in the two countries in relation to the complexity of the differences between the political structures, social attitudes, and the role of charitable giving in the two countries. In particular, the paper postulates a set of models—generosity and altruism—for explaining the differences.     

Young people,social media and connective action: from organisational maintenance to everyday political talk

Social media is pervasive in the lives of young people, and this paper critically analyses how politically engaged young people integrate social media use into their existing organisations and political communications. This qualitative research project studied how young people from a broad range of existing political and civic groups use social media for sharing information, mobilisation and, increasingly, as a means to redefine political action and political spaces. Twelve in-person focus groups were conducted in Australia, the USA and the UK with matched affinity groups based on university campuses. The groups were of four types: party political group, issue-based group, identity-based group and social group. Our focus group findings suggest that this in-depth approach to understanding young people's political engagement reveals important group-based differences emerging in young people's citizenship norms: between the dutiful allegiance to formal politics and a more personalised, self-actualising preference for online, discursive forms of political engagement and organising. The ways in which political information is broadcast, shared and talked about on social media by engaged young people demonstrate the importance of communicative forms of action for the future of political engagement and connective action.     

National policy approaches to social care for elderly people in the United Kingdom and Singapore 1945-2002

The authors compare policy approaches in the United Kingdom and Singapore on social care for older persons. The context of these approaches is discussed showing the development of policies, in each country from the aftermath of the Second World War to the present. Given that Singapore is a former British colony, it is of interest to scholars of social policy to examine its welfare approach as compared to the welfare state approach espoused by the United Kingdom. Both nations are faced with the challenges of an aging population, which necessitates handling similar problems with strategies that are in harmony with their respective economic, social, and cultural contexts. This paper considers their divergence of philosophies and policies, concluding with the recognition that the major difference lies in national and governmental expectations regarding the extent of the financial and regulatory responsibility for care for older people carried by the individual, the family, and the state.     

Citizens of the margin: citizenship and youth participation on the Moroccan social web

This paper examines how marginalized youth in Morocco use YouTube to contest hegemonic discourses of state power and institutional practices of social exclusion. The paper analyses a user-generated, YouTube web-series, Tales of Bouzebal, as a performance of marginality and a social critique of state bureaucracies and institutions in the context of post-Arab Spring Morocco. Using a combined method of textual and discourse analyses, the paper argues that the new media practices of producing and consuming user-generated video are best understood as practices of cultural citizenship that contribute to social change through the production of counter-discursive political subjectivities among youth in MENA. The paper posits that the concept of citizenship needs to be expanded to account for citizen participatory media practices that contest the conditions of marginality and inequality sustained by normative definitions of citizenship.     

Doubly disadvantaged: Unemployment,young age,and electoral participation in the United Kingdom

Previous studies examine how unemployment affects socio-political behaviour, but this literature has scarcely focused on the role of the life-course. Integrating the frameworks of unemployment scarring and political socialisation, we posit that unemployment experiences, or scars, undermine electoral participation, and that this is exacerbated at younger ages. We test these hypotheses relying on the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society datasets (1991–2020), employing panel data analysis approaches as Propensity Score Matching, Individual Fixed Effects, and Individual Fixed Effects with Individual Slopes. Results suggest that unemployment experiences depress electoral participation in the UK, with effect sizes around −5% of a Standard Deviation in turnout. However, this effect varies powerfully by age: the impact of unemployment on electoral participation is stronger at younger ages (−21% SD at age 20), and weaker to not significant after age 35. This is robust across the three main approaches and several robustness checks. Further analyses show that the first unemployment spell matters the most for electoral participation, and that for individuals under 35, there is a scar effect lasting up to 5 years after the first unemployment spell. The life-course emerges as central to better understand the relationship between labour market hardships and socio-political behaviour.     

Young people,social workers and social work education: the role of digital skills

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses a key issue in the development of youth-focused social work: the role of digital skills in the relationship between young people and social workers who work with these native digital users. To this end, we analysed data from the International Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 and Eurostat. Information from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a survey conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the British Association of Social Workers supported the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal a gap between the level of digital skills required in the labour market and the actual level of digital skills in both young people and social workers, despite efforts by both groups to improve their skills. Initiatives to foster digital skills are therefore recommended to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, it was concluded that both groups could act as mutual drivers of digital transformation.     

The participation of social services in youth justice systems in Europe

This article considers the participation of social services in youth justice systems in 11 European countries. In international children's rights instruments, the importance of the assessment of the background situation of juvenile defendants is acknowledged. In this article, three models for social work participation are proposed, on the basis of the distinction between adversarial and inquisitorial legal traditions and welfare and justice approaches towards youth justice. In the welfare model, social workers play the most active role in the youth justice process, whereas in the justice model, social workers have the least active role. In between, a mixed model can be found in which social workers play an active role in the youth justice system only to some extent.     

Young people negotiating and maintaining boundaries in youth work relationships: findings from an ethnographic study of youth clubs

‘Professional boundaries’ set limits on appropriate behaviours in the relationship between the service users and practitioners. The professional literature often assumes boundaries are maintained by the practitioners, occupational bodies, or organisational policy. However in youth work this is under-researched. An ethnographic study of four youth clubs in the North East of England into ethical practice revealed that young people were surprisingly adept at maintaining boundaries with the youth workers. These boundaries were negotiated and maintained through the young people's use of space, their willingness to interact with the workers, the way they shared information with the workers, and their inclusion of youth workers into their social networking. Young people also showed a sophisticated awareness of the organisational boundaries youth workers were operating within, and often cooperated in maintaining them with the worker. The article concludes by arguing youth workers should take seriously young people's ability and willingness to set and work within boundaries, and see their negotiation and maintenance as a mutual endeavour. However, this may provide a challenge to organisations with rigid policy-defined boundaries.     

Web survey of foster youth advisory boards in the United States

This study administered a web survey of foster youth advisory boards (YAB) in the United States. The survey was emailed to state or private agency representatives in 50 states and the District of Columbia. A total of 49 valid surveys were completed for an overall response rate of 96%. Respondents in 47 states (96%) reported having a foster youth advisory board. There was variation in the type of boards that operated. Just under half reported relying on a single source of funding (47%). The most common features of a YAB were: 1) foster youth issues and concerns, 2) advising a state agency director, 3) youth advocacy, and 4) a youth adult partnership model of decision-making. Opportunities to discuss foster youth issues and concerns and make youth-informed policy and practice decisions were rated by respondents as representing the most beneficial aspects of facilitating a YAB. Recruitment of members and high member turnover were rated as the most challenging aspects of YAB facilitation. Study findings are discussed in the context of participatory practices in child welfare systems and the features of youth advisory boards that facilitate youth voice and representation.     

Technology-Based Innovation for Independent Living: Policy and Innovation in the United Kingdom,Scandinavia, and the United States

Interest in utilizing technology to help older adults remain living at home is growing; however, uptake remains low. We present a conceptual framework for understanding independent living technology innovation within health and social services. Public policy and innovation in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia are profiled as case studies. In all profiled countries, independent living technology is more rapidly advancing than associated state policy, regulation, and payment systems. The findings from this comparative analysis reveal areas for further exploration, including policy subsystem environments in which technologies and services are regulated, as well as trends and desires of older adults and their caregivers within particular cultural contexts.     

Long-term care: a comparison of policies and services in Israel and the United Kingdom and implications for the United States

The issue of long-term care continues to be a main concern in the United States. As the country wrestles with the development of policies and services, the experiences of Israel, whose system rests upon national insurance, and that of the United Kingdom, which is based on grants to local authorities, can act as valuable teaching aids in the development of programs in the United States. Although both countries focus on community care with virtually universal access, concern over resources is forcing each to target their services increasingly to the most frail. The findings underscore the necessity for accurate planning and adequate resources if services are to meet the needs of the frail elderly population.