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Confidence and Uncertainty for Young People in Contemporary Europe

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Confidence and Uncertainty for Young People in Contemporary Europe Volume 3 of the series Perspectives on youth focuses on “healthy Europe”, not just in the narrow sense, but in the broader sense of what it is like to be young in a Europe faced with conflict and austerity, and what it feels like to be young as transitions become ever more challenging. The PERSPECTIVES ON YOUTH assumption when planning this issue was that health in this broader sense remains a controversial area within youth policy, where the points of departure of policy makers, on the one hand, and HEALTHY EUROPE: young people themselves on the other are often dramatically different; in fact, young people tend to interpret the dominating discourse as limiting, patronising, maybe even offensive. CONFIDENCE AND UNCERTAINTY The question of health brings the old tensions between protection and participation as well as agency and structure to the forefront. Not all questions are addressed in detail but many P are touched upon. It is, intentionally, an eclectic mix of contributions, to provide a diversity of 3 Volume – erspectives on youth FOR YOUNG PEOPLE argumentation and to promote reflection and debate. As has been the intention of Perspectives on youth throughout, we have sought to solicit and elicit the views of academics, policy makers and practitioners, presenting theoretical, empirical and hypothetical assertions and analysis. IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE Perspectives on youth is published by the partnership between the European Union and the Council of Europe in the field of youth in co-operation with, and with support from, four countries: Belgium, Finland, France and Germany. Its purpose is to keep the dialogue on key problems of child and youth policies on a solid foundation in terms of content, expertise and politics. The series aims to act as a forum for information, discussion, reflection and dialogue on European developments and trends in the field of youth policy, youth research and youth work while promoting a policy and youth work practice that is based on knowledge and participatory principles. PREMS 136915 The editorial team of this volume is composed of 12 members representing the supporting countries, the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR), the co-ordinator of the youth policy reviews of the Council of Europe, the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership and the co-ordinator of the editorial team. ENG http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int [email protected] The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human The European Union is a unique economic and political partnership rights organisation. It comprises 47 member states, between 28 democratic European countries. Its aims are peace, Volume 3 28 of which are members of the European Union. All prosperity and freedom for its 500 million citizens – in a fairer, safer Council of Europe member states have signed up to the world. To make things happen, EU countries set up bodies to run European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed the EU and adopt its legislation. The main ones are the European to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Parliament (representing the people of Europe), the Council of The European Court of Human Rights oversees the the European Union (representing national governments) and the implementation of the Convention in the member states. European Commission (representing the common EU interest). www.coe.int http://europa.eu Council of Europe Council http://book.coe.int ISSN 2313-0997 €27/US$54 Perspectives on youth Healthy Europe: confidence and uncertainty for young people in contemporary Europe Volume 3 Council of Europe The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, Internet, etc.) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the Directorate of Communication (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex or [email protected]). Cover design: Documents and Publications Production Department (SPDP), Council of Europe Layout: Jouve, Paris Cover photo: ©Shutterstock Council of Europe Publishing F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex http://book.coe.int ISSN 2313-0997 © Council of Europe/European Commission, March 2016 Printed at the Council of Europe Titre Contents EDITORIAL – CONFIDENCE AND UNCERTAINTY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE 5 Howard Williamson and Antonia Wulff 1. INTERVIEW WITH HARALD HARTUNG ON YOUTH AND HEALTH 11 2. THE YOUTH PRECARIAT, “GENERATIONISM” AND THE AUSTERITY CITY 15 Fred Powell and Margaret Scanlon 3. FROM HOLISTIC NEEDS TO CROSS-SECTORAL MEASURES – AN ANALYSIS OF CROSS-SECTORAL YOUTH POLICY BASED ON RELEVANT DOCUMENTATION 27 Magda Nico 4. ENVISIONING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 41 Beata Sochacka 5. YOUTH TRANSITIONS: CHANCES AND CHOICES – GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES 49 Dragana Avramov 6. CORRELATES OF MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF EUROPEAN YOUTH: EVIDENCE FROM THE EUROPEAN QUALITY OF LIFE SURVEY 63 Haridhan Goswami and Gary Pollock 7. “ILLEGAL BODIES” ON THE MOVE – A CRITICAL LOOK AT FORCED MIGRATION TOWARDS SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR YOUNG ASYLUM-SEEKERS 83 Maria Pisani 8. SELF-EFFECTIVE, ACTIVE AND HEALTHY – HEALTH PROMOTION IN INTERNATIONAL YOUTH WORK 99 Ansgar Drücker 9. LGBT YOUNG PEOPLE AND HOMOPHOBIC AND TRANSPHOBIC BULLYING – THE EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONTEXT 107 Michael Barron 10. REFLECTIONS ON A LIFETIME OF ENGAGEMENT IN THE YOUTH FIELD – PERSISTING QUESTIONS 121 Gordon Blakely 11. YOUTH, PEER EDUCATION AND HEALTH: A QUESTIONABLE SOLUTION TO REDUCE SOCIAL INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH (SIH) 135 Yaëlle Amsellem-Mainguy 12. BODY, HEALTH AND THE UNIVERSE – A POLEMIC AND CRITICAL REVIEW OF YOUTH HEALTH BEHAVIOUR 145 Manfred Zentner LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 155 ABOUT THE EDITORIAL TEAM 157 ABSTRACTS 159 Page 3 Editorial – Confidence and uncertainty for young people in contemporary Europe Editorial Confidence and uncertainty for young people in contemporary Europe Howard Williamson and Antonia Wulff hen we embarked upon Perspectives on youth Volume 3 our working framework was “Healthy Europe”. We were interested not only in the “narrow track” of W the health and well-being of young people, but also in the broader canvas of what it is like to be young in a Europe faced with conflict and austerity and what it feels like to be young as transitions become ever more challenging. Reference points are shifting: How do young people feel when embarking on yet another precarious and underpaid internship, despite their impressive educational attain- ment? Are they just accepting of their lot, or do they wish they had taken another (possibly, ultimately, equally precarious) path? How do they relate to and deal with the fact that there was a time when qualifications meant much more in terms of labour market destinations? How do they feel about having to plan a life when the resources to support any planning are so unpredictable? Do they still plan for the future or just live for the present? In what ways can these questions be understood or conceptualised in terms of health? Our assumption was that health remains a controversial area within youth policy, where the points of departure of policy makers on the one hand, and young people themselves on the other often are dramatically different; in fact, young people tend to interpret the dominating discourse on health as limiting, patronising – maybe even offensive. A healthy lifestyle tends to be conceptualised in normative and prescriptive ways, often asserting norms that may be impossible to live up to in a so-called knowledge-based economy. The question of health, of course, brings the old tensions between protection and participation as well as agency and structure to the forefront. Some would argue that it is unfair to apply a framework of healthy versus unhealthy to young people as the dichotomy is far from neutral and implies that there is a choice, and that they can choose better. Others would say that a focus on health is synonymous with a focus on the individual, and consequently any health-related failures are interpreted as individual failures rather than consequences of a broader societal ill-being. Page 5 Alternatively, could the scope of health within youth policy be broadened to go beyond traditional indicators such as body mass index, and alcohol and exercise habits? What constitutes healthy participation, citizenship, or consumption patterns? What are healthy coping mechanisms for a generation that has seen the role of the state change and shrink? Can a health framework help us to explore issues from a new perspective? As our thinking about framing this book unfolded we started to contemplate the ideas of love and hate, in an attempt to capture the often deeply embedded and emotional positions that may be held by young people. It was something of an unsuccessful attempt, as we sought to attract contributions of a contrarian, con- troversial, comparative and transnational character from those linked to the youth field in policy, research and practice. Perhaps we had moved so far away from more concrete conceptualisations of health that prospective contributors had no idea what we were seeking! In a parallel vein, we really have no idea what is going through young people’s minds (and bodies) as they traverse their multiple transitions in the context of their own aspirations and the expectations of others. What we know projects a rather mixed and muddled picture. Survey data relay one perspective, but qual- itative material often paints another picture. The view from research can be very different from that from practice. And policy makers may persist with attempts to “put old wine in new bottles” or make connections with new realities, not least the fragilities surrounding social inclusion and increasing psychosocial disorders in a significant proportion of young people.
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