Understanding Youth
Perspectives, Identities & Practices
Children and Adolescent Counselling | Developmental Psychology (General) | Youth Work
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.
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.
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.
Useful exercises for reflection and embedding learning.
