EU-CoE youth partnership

The youth knowledge books are the outcome of research seminars and expert workshops on priority topics of the EU-CoE youth partnership. Youth knowledge books are produced in English only. Translations in other languages are encouraged.

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The history of youth work in Europe - Volume 3 [3.47Mo]
Filip Coussée, Howard Williamson and Griet Verschelden (eds.) Council of Europe, 2012. 978-92-871-7244-0

Following on from the first two volumes of History of youth work in Europe, each of which was based on international semanars, the Belgian Presidency of the European Union held an international and interdisciplinary conference on the history of youth work. This third volume presents the work of this conference, which widened the scope of study from national histories to questions concerning the historical evolution of youth work methods, theories and targets. The 1^st European Conference on the History of Youth Work made a two-prolonged contribution: to learn from history and to engage in intercultural exchange and learning.

This publication is intended to build bridges between past and future, east and west, north and south - and to inform contemporary debate on youth work and youth policy in Europe.

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EKCYP insights [2,81Mo]
Philipp Boetzelen (ed). Council of Europe, 2012.

Are you interested in youth policies throughout Europe? Do you want to know more about the youth policy priorities of the European Union and the Council of Europe? Then you should get to know the virtual European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP). Established by the Partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth and supported by a Europe-wide network of national correspondents, this online database aims to foster evidence based youth policy though the exchange of knowledge between researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

This book provides insight into the knowledge one can obtain through the EKCYP and explains how national correspondents work to contribute up-to-date information.

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1989 - Young people and social change after the fall of the Berlin Wall [1,63Mo]
Carmen Leccardi, Carles Feixa, Siyka Kovacheva, Herwig Reiter, Tatjana Sekulić (eds). Council of Europe, 2011. 978-92-871-7183-2

After the collapse of state socialism at the end of the 1980s, young people in Eastern Europe began to play a dramatically different role in society. Once cast as the vital, reinvigorating protagonists of the communist ideal, they emerged as promoters of democratisation and agents of a now hegemonic market system. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an event symbolising both the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War, an international seminar was held in Budapest to discuss how the opening of Eastern European societies to Western Europe and the world had changed the living conditions and experiences of young people growing up in the region.

This collection of essays, based on the outcomes of this seminar, examines the circumstances of young people in Eastern Europe before and after 1989 from a variety of angles: their transition to adulthood; their living conditions; the scope they have for social participation; the way in which they construct their identities and constitute and represent current social realities; their cultures and genders; and the interplay of continuities and discontinuities around this historic watershed.

This book, which pays particularly close attention to the relationship between research, policy and practice, is an invaluable tool for anyone wishing to achieve a deeper understanding of young people in Eastern Europe today.

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Intercultural learning in non-formal education [1,27Mo]
Susana Lafraya. Council of Europe, 2011. 978-92-871-6822-1

Intercultural learning has long held a central role in European youth work and policy, especially in international youth exchanges. The expectations placed on intercultural learning as a process, as an educational and social objective and, lastly, as a political attitude in relation to diversity remain fully relevant in Europe today.

Several factors are necessary for the development of quality youth work, including the capacity to put knowledge and research to good use and, similarly, to present youth work in ways that actors in other social and policy fields can understand. The work of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth in the areas of youth-worker training and of intercul¬tural dialogue - in particular the Euro-Mediterranean co-operation activities - has provided many examples of successful experiences in intercultural learning in youth work and of difficulties in communicating about such work.

This essay by Susana Lafraya is a contribution to enlarging the circle of communication on intercultural learning experience through youth work. The connections that she makes between non-formal learning, youth work and intercultural theory sum up much of what has been said in the youth work field in the past years. It is translated and published here with the intention of adding one more stone to the edifice of intercultural learning and non-formal education.

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Some still more equal than others ? Or equal opportunities for all ?
Edited by Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu. Council of Europe, 2011. 978-92-871-6746-0

Inequality limits young people's chances in life. Yet equality is the basis of democracy and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights secures the rights and freedoms of the young "without discrimination on any ground".

Research shows that inequality - in opportunities, wealth or health, for example - is widespread in Europe and that the citizens of richer countries do not necessarily have healthier profiles than those of poorer countries. The citizens of egalitarian countries, on the other hand, have the highest life expectancy.

This book examines many aspects of inequality and opportunity for young people including schooling, employment, social exclusion, labour migration, trafficking, disability, cultural and religious discrimination, youth work, and opposition and resistance.

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The history of youth work in Europe - Volume 2. Relevance for today's youth work policy
Edited by Filip Coussée, Griet Verschelden, Tineke Van de Walle, Marta Mędlińska and Howard Williamson

Youth work starts where young people are. It is perhaps this general principle that seems to create a certain 'myopic view' in youth work practice, policy and research. We tend to concentrate on the questions of today and take them as a starting point for our future plans. This sometimes makes youth work an uncertain and fragile practice. The lack of historical consciousness makes youth work vulnerable to instrumentalisation, whether by policymakers or even by young people themselves, claiming youth work should fulfil the needs they define to be urgent and relevant.

Youth work is a contingent practice and history will not reveal to us its one and only real identity. Knowing where we come from, however, is an important step in establishing a confident, though not arrogant, identity. Youth work is a social and pedagogical practice that must be adapted to very diverse historical, geographic and social contexts, but there are still some underlying, basic assumptions that have structured practices and policies to date and continue to do so. In this light, a cross-cultural and transnational perspective can be most enlightening.

This second volume of The history of youth work in Europe, presents the youth work histories of some very different countries: Belgium and its three communities, the Netherlands, Ireland, Wales and Hungary. The reader is also introduced to the history of the relatively young European youth policies, and is even given a glimpse beyond European borders with a history of youth work in South Africa.

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Youth employment and the future of work (Youth knowledge No.10) (2010) Youth-employment
Edited by Jonathan Evans and Wei Shen. Council of Europe, 2010. 978-92-871-6657-9

Young people are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in economic trends. Youth employment is therefore high on the policy agenda of those concerned with promoting social inclusion. While youth-targeted employment policies tend to combine both demand-side and supply-side approaches, it is important to recognise that traditional notions of "work" have more recently been challenged and reconceptualised. The old assumptions about gender roles, "job security" and "planned careers" have thus been transformed by the profound economic and social changes of recent decades.

The essays collected here were developed from papers first delivered at a research seminar on youth employment organised by the partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission in the field of youth. They represent a diverse and, at times, provocative collection of analytic snapshots of the position of young people on the European labour market. What emerges is a shared commitment to finding flexible responses to economic globalisation and a concomitant concern for promoting the rights, interests and welfare of young people in both training placement and in the workplace.

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The history of youth work in Europe and its relevance for youth policy today
Edited by Griet Verschelden, Filip Coussée, Tineke Van de Walle and Howard Williamson. Council of Europe, 2009 978-92-871-6608-1

Youth work is a polyvalent and multi-faceted practice. It takes place in a wide range of settings, varies from unstructured activities to fairly structured programmes, reaches a diverse array of young people, touches upon many different themes and cuts across several other disciplines and practices. This versatility is one of the strengths of youth work, but at the same time it may lead to fragmentation and product vagueness.

In this book we take a historical perspective that aims to identify the close links between youth work developments and broader social, cultural and political developments. What are the beliefs and concepts that underpin youth work? How do they relate to the recurrent youth work paradox, that youth work produces active and democratic citizens but at the same time seems ineffective for young people who are excluded from active citizenship? Tracing back the roots of youth work and identifying different evolutions within and between countries help to initiate a fundamental discussion on modern-day youth work identity and to cope in a constructive way with the recurrent paradoxes of youth work.

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What is youth policy, and what major elements should a national youth policy strategy include? How can young
people be consul ted and otherwise involved in developing youth policy? How do institutions such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations address youth policy, and how can this work be concretely linked to the efforts of a national government to develop a youth policy agenda?

These are some of the essential questions addressed in this publication. The Youth Policy Manual should be considered a resource, a tool and a helpful guide both for policy makers in the youth field and for non-governmental organisations and other stakeholder groups who advocate for improved youth policy at the national level.

This manual proposes one possible model for how a national youth policy strategy can be developed. It is based on the author’s observations from the countries of Southeastern and eastern Europe, as they gain experience in addressing youth policy in a transversal and cross-sectorial manner and with the active involvement of young people.

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European citizenship is still a contested concept, bringing together two notions and therefore two different debates: one around Europe and European identity, and the other related to citizenship and non-citizenship.

Europe, in an ongoing process of construction, should be shaped and defined by its citizens. Young people in particular have a special interest in and concern about what kind of Europe they want to live in. It is therefore important to reflect on how could European citizenship and debates around European identity help and empower young people to actively contribute to building Europe.

The essays collected here address this issue. They present the debates and findings of the research seminar entitled “Young People and Active European Citizenship”, organised by the partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission in the field of youth. European citizenship remains one of the main priorities of this partnership.

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It is this apparent acceptance of diversity as a fact and value that this book sets out to examine, in a range of ways, it offers a countervailing assessment of 'diversity; seeing it less as a unifying social imaginary and more as a cost-free form of politics attuned to the needs of late capitalist, consumer societies. The introduction distinguishes between 'diversity polities' — emerging from a range of critiques of social power — and the “politics of diversity”, a depoliticised celebration of difference that replicates the problems of multiculturalism without the benefits of the overt ideological engagement that multiculturalism has provoked.

The essays collected here are developed from a research seminar entitled "Diversity, Human Rights and Participation" organised by the Partnership on Youth between the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The studies gathered here are embedded in 10 different national contexts. They track dimensions of 'diversity' in education, social services, jurisprudence, parliamentary proceedings and employment initiatives, and assess their significances for the social actors who must negotiate these frameworks in their daily experience.

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Social exclusion, the polarisation of the types of chances life offers to different groups of young people, is increasing, it is spatially concentrated in some regions and neighbourhoods and is arguably linked to social class. Race and gender can also contribute to this phenomenon, as can other inequalities such as disability.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cover picture of the book ""Charting the landscape of European youth voluntary activities"

How does the voluntary engagement of young people enhance their active citizenship and solidarity? Can youth policies facilitate social inclusion through volunteering?

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Understanding, explicating, recognising and evaluating the quality of non-formal learning in the youth sector.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cover picture of the book "Revisiting youth political participation"

Provides an interdisciplinary panorama of conceptual, historical, sociological and institutional analyses of young people and their democratic involvement in Europe today.

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The interdisciplinary contributions to resituating culture combine overviews of relevant cultural theory with the research and perspectives of the individual contributors.