Youth Work and Authoritarianism: Responses to Social Conditions

Youth work and organised youth movements have served many purposes. Youth work has been a site of innovation in programs and methods to ameliorate some of the conditions that contribute, either directly or indirectly, to young people’s acceptance or passivity when faced with authoritarianism. For example, some programs use non-formal education methods to strengthen young people’s knowledge and skills concerning their rights and the rights of others (promoting youth participation and democratisation of institutions). Other programs focus on young people’s well-being (connections with others, self-acceptance, employment) material need (such as poverty, homelessness), and connections with community and society (social and political education).

Through its engagement with the state, organised religion and young people, youth work has also been a site of historic and contemporary entanglements of religion, politics, and economic strategy, as youth workers are co-opted into (or seek partnerships with) programmes that move young people in and out of the education and the labour force. In some contexts, youth work methods have been used by authoritarian regimes (including fascist and militaristic regimes).

This session welcomes presentations that analyse youth work practices that address the personal, social, or political conditions that foster authoritarianism in different contexts. This might include:

• Discussions of youth work approaches and methods that respond to personal, social, spiritual, and political conditions that contribute (directly or indirectly) to young people’s acceptance of authoritarianism, or
• Analysis how ‘soft’ authoritarianism has affected youth work organisation and funding.