Provisional conclusions – Conference on the history of youth work and policy in Europe
On Wednesday, 6 July 2010, the first conference took place on the history of youth work and policy. Hundreds of (youth) experts from the fifty different countries of the Council of Europe delved into the history to seek out lessons for the future.
No future without a past
Academics, policy makers and youth representatives discussed European and international youth policy in workshops and listened to leading speakers on this matter in plenary sessions. The conference achieved its objective, which was to place these provisional conclusions on the European agenda.
An academic team, led by Professors Howard Williamson (University of Glamorgan, Wales) and Filip Cousee (UGent, Belgium), combined the conclusions reached by the experts and participants present into a provisional report.
Provisional conclusions
Howard Williamson’s team stated that youth work had always been highly diverse and had constantly adapted to a changing society of which it forms part.
"Things are changing so rapidly that we may be born in one state of society, educated for another, and find in adulthood that all has changed again.
Youth work reflects the society it is in. Society changes to change more rapidly than ever. Youth work is a practice full of tensions: adapting young people to a changing society and in the same time questioning social evolutions that may have discriminatory effects on (some) young people.
History shows us that there has always been a strong need and a strong will to realize enabling and supportive youth work policies. Policies that recognize the large diversity in youth work practices. This diversity has always been fostered, because without this diversity youth work could never accommodate the diverse need of an heterogeneous population of young people. This has always been a huge challenge to policymakers, but also to practitioners and researchers. In times of crisis this was and is even more important, but also more difficult to realize. All the more it is important today not to forget our histories".
Press contacts:
Balliu, Jan
Agency for Social and Cultural Work for Young People and Adults
jan.balliu@cjsm.vlaanderen.be
+32 (0)498 361 226
