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Understanding Youth
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Understanding Youth
Perspectives, Identities & Practices

Edited by:


February 2007 | 368 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
'The series Youth: Perspectives and Practice provides a distinctive combination of expert commentary, new research, original theorising and critical reflection on how we should understand youth and work with young people. These books deserve a wide readership….the way they are written and organised will make them particularly appealing to students.'

Professor Robert MacDonald, University of Teesside

'I have found that these books have enlightened and further developed my understanding of young people and are an excellent point of reference to support my work in this field.'

Carolyn Moore, Youth Worker

Young people's lives have changed in dramatic ways in recent years. Important transformations have taken place in the social structures and processes shaping young lives, including education, the loss of the traditional youth labour market, and shifts in the nature of family and intimate relationships.

Understanding Youth: Perspectives, Identities and Practices engages with these changing experiences. By drawing on recent research and the insights of young people the book provides a clear and comprehensive overview of youth in late modernity.

" Part 1 Perspectives presents three different ways of conceptualising and understanding youth.

" Part 2 Identities considers issues of self and identity.

" Part 3 Practices explores the everyday practices that give shape to young people's lives.

The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach and presents complex issues in an accessible and interactive way. It will be essential reading for students on courses in youth work, youth studies, education, social work and social policy, and for professionals working with young people in a wide range of settings. Together with its companion volume, Youth in Context: Frameworks, Settings and Encounters, it is a core text for The Open University's third level undergraduate course Youth: Perspectives and Practice (KE308).

Mary Jane Kehily is Senior Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies at The Open University.

 
Introduction
 
PERSPECTIVES
Mary Jane Kehily
A Cultural Perspective
Heather Montgomery
A Comparative Perspective
Rachel Thomson
A Biographical Perspective
 
IDENTITIES
Martin Robb
Gender
Rachel Thomson
Belonging
Martin Robb
Well-being
 
PRACTICES
Rachel Thomson
Working
Mary Jane Kehily
Playing
Heather Montgomery
Moving
Martin Robb
Relating
 
Conclusion

This book will become an essential text within several of our modules on our various community youth work programmes. Split into meaningful sections with easy to read and illustrated chapters, our students have responded well to this text. In my own teaching Chapter 1 gives a very valuable introduction to cultural perspectives on youth. I make very clear to students that this text is the starting point for their reading as it will guide them in the right direction.

Mr ALASTAIR SCOTT-MCKINLEY
Community Youth Work, Ulster University
July 16, 2011

Mary Jane Kehily's Understanding Youth is an extremely useful undergraduate text. Its problem based focus and wealth of examples and excercises, coupled with decent photographic illustrations, make it an ideal teaching resource. Its well stocked thematic repertoire usefully demonstrates to students some of the range of methods and theories available in the study of youth.

Dr Patrick Turner
Department of Education, London Metropolitan University
May 6, 2011

Useful exercises for reflection and embedding learning.

Mrs Wendy Bannerman
Childhood and Youth, Northampton University
March 10, 2010
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Paperback
ISBN: 9781412930659
£44.99

Hardcover
ISBN: 9781412930642
£133.00