Participle

Contrast enables understanding. That’s why cross-cultural studies and comparative research can be so instructive, helping to trigger critical self-reflection. A 1992 article on the applicability of Western family therapy models to Japanese families might, at first glance, seem an unlikely candidate for sparking that critical self-reflection. But the authors get underneath concepts in a very vivid, tangible way. They argue that Western culture emphasizes separateness over connectedness. That means that problems tend to be defined in terms of individuals’ dependency and inability to function independently. What does this have to do with adolescence? Well, in Western cultures, the main ‘task’ of adolescence is conceptualized as independence--as establishing your own identity and transitioning away from the family unit and towards economic self-sustainability. As the authors note, “Problem solving in Britain is often directed toward increasing separation. Thus, independence and differentiation are the goals to be facilitated...In Japan, the ‘right’ balance of separateness/connectedness is defined much more toward the connected side of the continuum...To achieve connectedness in the family system, notions like mutual support, sensitivity to others, and maintenance of group harmony become important (p.7).”

The authors illustrate their points with a series of case-studies. One details a 14-year old girl who refused to attend school for more than a year, in part, because she saw herself as protecting her mother from her father’s nagging and that of her fathers’ family (whom they lived next door to). While British therapists might deem ‘individuation’ as the primary goal and the marital relationship as the focal point, Japanese therapists would take the cross-generational and spousal relationships of equal importance and work towards re-calibrating the entire set of relationships (p.10). While the methods and techniques of family therapy have undoubtedly moved on since the article was written, the case-studies and analysis are useful in helping us to question some of our most basic assumptions and get underneath concepts like independence and autonomy which are rife in the adolescent literature.

Source: Tamura, Takeshi and Annie Lau. 1992. “Connectedness versus separateness: Applicability of family therapy to Japanese families.” Fam Proc 31: 319-340. 

Journal articles can often feel completely removed from day-to-day practice. But sometimes, just sometimes, they turn a concept on its head and help you to understand the ordinary in a new light. That’s what a Leisure Studies Article—called ‘Street Corner Society’—did for me. It took the all too common occurrence of young people hanging around the street and put it in a new context. ‘Hanging around’ became conceptualized as a ‘leisure career’ alongside ‘school careers’ ‘work careers’ ‘family careers’ and ‘housing careers.’ ‘Leisure careers’ are the norm—in and of themselves, they are not a bad thing. In fact, quite the opposite, through informal interaction (away from parents, teachers, and formal authority figures) young people try out and rework their personal and social identities. In other words, informal interaction that occurs in informal spaces (i.e. not youth centres or youth clubs) is a critical part of the developmental process.

What’s problematic is when those spaces and interactions remain static and insular. As the authors write, “Repeatedly unemployed young men lacked the sites through which to establish new, more socially varied or geographically spread, social networks (p344).” This, for me, should be at the heart of our youth work—addressing some young people’s ‘network poverty.’ If we can come up with ways to expand young people’s informal social networks—and build more equal relationships between young people and adults—we could help ensure that young people’s leisure careers are an asset, rather than a deficit.

Article: Street Corner Society: Leisure Careers, Youth (Sub)culture and Social Exclusion by Robert MacDonald and Tracy Shildrick. In Leisure Studies; 26:3, 339-355.

A recent article in The Guardian highlights one community’s efforts to align healthy behaviours with healthy incentives. So often we assume children and young people have material motives and so try to encourage ‘good behaviour’ with commercial rewards. As a primary school student, if I performed well on a test or read a certain number of books in a month, I was rewarded with a gift certificate for pizza. Similarly, when my entire class exceeded expectations on an exam or assignment we got to visit the school ‘store’ where cheap prizes supposedly cultivated continued hard work. By linking student performance with material stuff, we can inadvertently compromise students’ intrinsic motivations. At the same time, positive feedback most certainly breeds success.  That’s why a Scottish Council’s decision to reward students with charitable donations is such a bright, new idea. Students acquire points for healthy behaviour and then can use those points to select items in a Save the Children catalogue. Healthy behaviour is rewarded with caring and empathy. Ends and means are in synch. Read more at:
Guardian article

Language is powerful.  The words we use are not just reflections of reality, but help to actively construct the way things are. Back in 2005—before the recent spate of youth violence—an article appeared in the Observer describing the anxiety the word hoodie evoked, “Hoodies are, after all, public enemy number one - a social menace right up there in media perception with al-Qaeda and Kate Moss...barely a day goes by without another hoodie headline devoted to their vile behaviour, leaving most of us shaking with fear at the very sight of them...” For every hoodie headline, there are dozens more positive stories about young people that remain untold.  A new innovation might help bring those stories to light, and in the process, spawn a more balanced image of our youth.  Called http://spot.us/ the premise is simple: journalists will pitch stories to local communities, people can vote—with their money—for the stories they want to read, and the articles will be written and distributed to a wide variety of local sources. The question is whether people will pay to read ‘good’ news stories, but the idea of community-generated news content seems to be a step forward. 

There’s a saying that all politics is local, and in a globalised era, so too is all news.  What happens in other places reverberates—so much so—that we are often more aware of international events than local events.  A neighbourhood newsletter gets slipped under my door once a month, but on a day-to-day basis, national newspapers and television programmes are my go-to-sources. I hope http://www.everyblock.com/ starts to change that. Go the site, pop in your location (in the US only right now), and the most localised of coverage appears—from police activity to photographs to restaurant reviews to recent news stories and blog posts rounded up from around the web.  Getting back in touch with our neighbourhoods—both the people and happenings that shape it—is the essence of connectedness.  If we want young people to feel more connected to their neighbourhoods, we have to emphasise the role of place, build up local knowledge, and overcome anonymity. 

Our work on young people is about connectedness. It’s about the relationships young people have to themselves, their families, supportive adults, and the worlds beyond where they live. Most programmes and interventions aim to do something else: to reduce teenage pregnancy, to stop anti-social behavior, to curtail drug use. That’s why a recent article on a multi-generational community in Illinois struck such a nerve.  Foster and adoptive families have moved to a neighborhood where rents are also subsidised for the elderly. The elderly serve as surrogate grandparents, opening up their homes and lives to young people who have experienced trauma, insecurity, and really just want to feel a part of a community that cares about them. The research is pretty clear: young people (and adults!) who feel like they matter do better. In fact, the Illinois example is working so well that the US-based Kellogg Foundation recently announced it will bring the model to seven other communities. It’s not just the youth outcomes that are impressive, it’s the elderly members’ renewed feeling of purpose and verve that makes the work notable and worth following…