TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘It’s a great place to find where you belong’
T2 - Creating, curating and valuing place and space in open youth work
AU - de St Croix, Tania
AU - Doherty, Louise
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant [ES/R004773/1]. The authors would like to thank all the people and organisations who participated in the study, Ayo Mansaray for comments on an earlier version, the anonymous peer reviewers and editors of Children’s Geographies for constructive and collegial suggestions during the review process, and Sage Brice for a useful discussion on ‘space and place’ in geography and youth work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Open youth work is a practice of informal education that operates in a variety of spaces, from youth clubs and community centres to street corners. This article highlights the distinctive spatiality of these settings, their valuable contribution to young people’s lives, and how they are actively created and curated by those involved. Rooted in the perspectives of young people and youth workers who took part in a three-year qualitative study in eight youth work settings in England, it proposes that open youth work can provide a relational, educational, and potentially liberatory ‘third place’ beyond home, school and work. The research found that youth work provides young people with spatially and temporally fluid places for belonging, association, and understanding and acting on the unequal contexts in which they live. We argue for more critical reflection on the distinctively spatial aspects of youth work, including more engagement between youth work and the geographies of childhood and youth. As well as having implications for youth work practice and training, this engagement could support the (re-)imagining of a wide range of ‘third places’ of refuge and critical democracy for children and young people, in a context of oppression and inequalities.
AB - Open youth work is a practice of informal education that operates in a variety of spaces, from youth clubs and community centres to street corners. This article highlights the distinctive spatiality of these settings, their valuable contribution to young people’s lives, and how they are actively created and curated by those involved. Rooted in the perspectives of young people and youth workers who took part in a three-year qualitative study in eight youth work settings in England, it proposes that open youth work can provide a relational, educational, and potentially liberatory ‘third place’ beyond home, school and work. The research found that youth work provides young people with spatially and temporally fluid places for belonging, association, and understanding and acting on the unequal contexts in which they live. We argue for more critical reflection on the distinctively spatial aspects of youth work, including more engagement between youth work and the geographies of childhood and youth. As well as having implications for youth work practice and training, this engagement could support the (re-)imagining of a wide range of ‘third places’ of refuge and critical democracy for children and young people, in a context of oppression and inequalities.
KW - relationships
KW - space
KW - third place
KW - young people
KW - youth work
KW - time
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147709811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14733285.2023.2171770
DO - 10.1080/14733285.2023.2171770
M3 - Article
SN - 1473-3277
VL - 21
SP - 1029
EP - 1043
JO - Children's Geographies
JF - Children's Geographies
IS - 6
ER -