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YOUTH &POLICY No. 108 MARCH 2012 Young People, Welfare Reform and Social Insecurity Buses from Beirut: Young People, Bus Travel and Anti-Social Behaviour Participation and Activism: Young people shaping their worlds John Dewey and Experiential Learning: Developing the theory of youth work Home Alone? Practitioners’ Reflections on the Implications of Young People Living Alone Thinking Space: An Institute for Youth Work? Reviews Editorial Group Ruth Gilchrist, Tracey Hodgson, Tony Jeffs, Dino Saldajeno, Mark Smith, Jean Spence, Naomi Stanton, Tania de St Croix, Tom Wylie. Associate Editors Priscilla Alderson, Institute of Education, London Sally Baker, The Open University Simon Bradford, Brunel University Judith Bessant, RMIT University, Australia Lesley Buckland, YMCA George Williams College Bob Coles, University of York John Holmes, Newman College, Birmingham Sue Mansfield, University of Dundee Gill Millar, South West Regional Youth Work Adviser Susan Morgan, University of Ulster Jon Ord, University College of St Mark and St John Jenny Pearce, University of Bedfordshire John Pitts, University of Bedfordshire Keith Popple, London South Bank University John Rose, Consultant Kalbir Shukra, Goldsmiths, University of London Tony Taylor, IDYW Joyce Walker, University of Minnesota, USA Aniela Wenham, University of York Anna Whalen, Freelance Consultant Published by Youth & Policy, ‘Burnbrae’, Black Lane, Blaydon Burn, Blaydon on Tyne NE21 6DX. www.youthandpolicy.org Copyright: Youth & Policy The views expressed in the journal remain those of the authors and not necessarily those of the editorial group. Whilst every effort is made to check factual information, the Editorial Group is not responsible for errors in the material published in the journal. ii Youth & Policy No. 108 March 2012 About Youth & Policy Youth & Policy Journal was founded in 1982 to offer a critical space for the discussion of youth policy and youth work theory and practice. The editorial group have subsequently expanded activities to include the organisation of related conferences, research and book publication. Regular activities include the bi- annual ‘History of Community and Youth Work’ and the ‘Thinking Seriously’ conferences. The Youth & Policy editorial group works in partnership with a range of local and national voluntary and statutory organisations who have complementary purposes. These have included UK Youth, YMCA, Muslim Youth Council and Durham University. All members of the Youth & Policy editorial group are involved in education, professional practice and research in the field of informal education, community work and youth work. The journal is run on a not-for-profit basis. Editors andAssociate Editors all work in a voluntary and unpaid capacity. iii Youth & Policy No. 108 March 2012 YOUTH &POLICY Contents No. 108 MARCH 2012 Young People, Welfare Reform and Social Insecurity Buses from Beirut: Young People, Bus Travel and Anti-Social Behaviour Participation and Activism: Young people shaping their worlds John Dewey and Experiential Learning: developing the theory of youth work Home Alone? Practitioners’ Refl ections on the Implications of Young People Living Alone Thinking Space: An Institute for Youth Work? Reviews Young People, Welfare Reform and Social Insecurity Margaret Melrose 1 ➤ Buses from Beirut: Young People, Bus Travel and Anti-Social Behaviour Stephen Moore 20 ➤ Participation and Activism: Young people shaping their worlds Kalbir Shukra, Malcolm Ball and Katy Brown 36 ➤ John Dewey and Experiential Learning: Developing the theory of youth work Jon Ord 55 ➤ Home Alone? Practitioners’ Reflections on the Implications of Young People Living Alone Kayleigh Garthwaite 73 ➤ THINKING SPACE: An Institute for Youth Work? Tom Wylie 88 ➤ Reviews 91 ➤ iv Youth & Policy No. 108 March 2012 Contributors Malcolm Ball is an Advisor to the Young Mayor of Lewisham. Katy Brown is an Advisor to the Young Mayor of Lewisham. Kayleigh Garthwaite is a Researcher at the Wolfson Research Institute, Department of Geography, Durham University, Stockton on Tees. Margaret Melrose Professor of Social Policy and Applied Social Research at the Institute of Applied Social Research, University of Bedfordshire. Stephen Moore is a Reader in Social Policy, Department of Family and Community Studies, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Jon Ord is a Reader in Youth Work, University College Marjon, Plymouth. Kalbir Shukra is a Lecturer in Community and Youth Work at Goldsmiths College, London. Tom Wylie serves as a Trustee for various youth bodies. He was Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency,1996–2007 and prior to that he was one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors. v Youth & Policy No. 108 March 2012 © YOUTH & POLICY, 2012 Young People, Welfare Reform and Social Insecurity Margaret Melrose Abstract This article traces the continuities between welfare reforms pursued under New Labour and those proposed by the Coalition government in the UK. It suggests that these reforms sought and continue to seek to discipline young people to accept low-paid, insecure work and unemployment and thereby entrench their poverty and disadvantage. The article argues that faced with this social and economic insecurity many young people may opt for informal opportunities in the shadow economy where they will become further dislocated from the socio-economic mainstream. Key words: Young people, poverty, unemployment, neoliberalism, informal economy IN FebrUarY 2011 the Coalition Government published its Welfare reform bill following earlier publication of the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works (DWP, 2010). The reforms promise ‘the most far-reaching programme of change that the welfare system has witnessed in generations’ (DWP, 2010:1). This article shows that rather than a radical new departure, the proposed reforms promise continuity with welfare reforms developed under New Labour and previous Conservative governments. by doing so they move us further in the direction of neoliberal orthodoxy (see also Crisp et. al., 2009a). Like previous welfare reforms, these proposals adopt individualistic explanations for the structural problems of poverty and unemployment and suggest ‘a behaviourist, supply-side explanation of “welfare dependency” ’ (Peck, 1999:345) as their cause. Coalition welfare reforms, like those of New Labour, are concerned with producing suitable subjects for the global economy and are therefore preoccupied with disciplining welfare claimants and modifying their behaviour in relation to job-seeking activity (Schram, 2007). These reforms are designed to engage welfare claimants in the practice of reconstructing themselves from ‘passive recipients’ of ‘welfare’ to ‘active contributors’ to ‘workfare’ (Schram, 2007; Dean, 2007). In this sense, they are intended to ‘create workers for jobs nobody wants rather than to create jobs for people who do not have them’ (Peck, 2001:6) and arguably represent new modes of governance of the poor. This article is particularly concerned with the ways in which the institutionalised social insecurity that neoliberal social policy represents forces socially and economically disadvantaged young people into abject positions. It suggests that the effects of reforms proposed by the Coalition, 1 Youth & Policy No. 108 March 2012 Young PeopLe, Welfare reforM and SocIaL InsecuritY like those of New Labour, will further entrench poverty and social disadvantage amongst the young. Faced with unpalatable choices between unemployment, low paid and unrewarding work, reduced educational opportunities and harsh discipline administered through the benefit system, marginalised and disadvantaged young people may opt for ‘alternative careers’ (Craine, 1997) in the informal economy. The discussion begins by tracing the establishment of the neoliberal government agenda and its consolidation under New Labour. It then explores Coalition plans for welfare reform and the ways in which New Labour policies such as New Deal for Young People paved the way for these. The discussion continues by considering levels of unemployment and poverty in the UK among those aged 16-24 and reflects on the ways in which Coalition welfare reforms may further entrench their poverty and disadvantage. The consequences and costs of not investing in young people are then explored along with the alternative opportunities that young people may find in the informal, shadow or criminal economies. The article concludes by arguing that it is imperative that policies are developed to ensure that young people are provided with labour market and educational opportunities which will offer meaningful alternatives to the stark choices with which they are currently confronted. If such alternatives are not developed the future social and individual costs will be significant and may be felt for generations to come. Establishing the neoliberal agenda Since the 1980s, and the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government neoliberalism has been the primary default position of successive british governments (Peck, 2001). The neoliberal social and economic policies pursued by consecutive governments since that time have resulted in fundamentally restructured labour markets and a transformed welfare state. The labour market has polarised with an expansion of ‘flexible’, ‘hyper-casualised’, insecure and low-paid work at one end and highly skilled, highly rewarded (and highly rewarding) secure work at the other (MacKinnon et. al., 2011; Goos and Manning, 2007; bell and blanchflower, 2009). The ‘bridge’