Judith Bessant

Mixed messages: youth participation and democratic practice

The article begins by observing that, over the last decade, the idea of youth participation has once more become a popular part of contemporary political talk both in Australia and in many Western societies. Indeed most Western governments now advocate enhanced youth participation as part of a discourse about modern citizenship, so much so that it has become a policy cliché to say ‘increased youth participation’ will ‘empower’ young people, help build community and remedy a range of social problems. It is also noted that, if the idea of participation itself is an old idea central to the liberal democratic tradition, the current ‘rediscovery’ of youth participation is arguably part of that political orthodoxy. Drawing on selected State, national and Commonwealth government youth documents, the question is asked whether the official enthusiasm for youth participation has much to do with democratic practice. It is argued that the recent government enthusiasm for youth participation is problematic for three reasons. First, it fails to recognise the significant obstacles that young people currently experience when trying to participate socially, economically and politically. Second, there is a failure to think through what democratic practice requires. Third, both the conceptualisation and operationalisation of official youth participation policies reveal an agenda that is seriously at odds with the rhetoric of democratic participation. This raises questions about whose voice is actually being heard and to what effect. A litmus test of any government, however it may describe itself, is its treatment of children. (Yakovlev 2003, 33)

Youth participation: A new mode of government

In recent years the idea of youth participation has achieved an almost obligatory status in youth policy documents. An uncritical reading would leave many with the expectation that this approach will deliver increased democratic participation for young people. This impression is understandable given the way language used draws on the rhetoric of democratic participation. A policy initiative that increases the democratic participation of young people is important and would mark a major shift in their citizenship status. Such an proposal would be important because the question of participation and citizenship matters for that part of the population (namely, young people) who by reason of explicit and implicit criteria are excluded from many political processes and denied many rights most adults take for granted. Secondly, such a development would be significant in terms of our ability to legitimately claim to be democratic. This is because before such a claim can be made it needs to be generally accepted that a reasonable basis exists for excluding particular groups (namely young people) from what is an otherwise widely available set of political, civil rights and abilities. Indeed current practices of denying young people1 their citizenship rights raises questions about the grounds on which such exclusion is legitimate. A further reason why such a policy initiative would be significant is that increased opportunities for young peoples’ democratic participation would help remedy the power imbalance which makes them easy targets for those who want to make a name for themselves in the political arena. In other words, affording young people opportunities to engage in the public sphere, to actively participate in public discourses provides opportunities to narrate themselves and to challenge the ways ‘youth’ are represented. Yet, despite the implied promise of augmented democratic participation for young people, what recent policies actually offer are measures that have the effect of extending the governance of young people. I argue that the recent fascination with ‘youth participation’ is part of a reformist discourse that talks of democracy, increased autonomy and modern citizenship for young people as a solution to a range of problems, yet it overlooks the problem of young peoples’ negligible political status. I argue here that the new discourse of ‘youth at risk’, in the context of emerging third way politics, offered governments, and the apparatus of specific administrations (i.e., education, justice, health, etc.) opportunities to revitalise older practices of government which took advantage of the resurgence of economic liberalism and individualism to promote new styles of youth policy. I draw on the work of Cruishank (1999) and governmentality theory more generally to ask whether recent officially declared commitments to increased youth participation are directed towards enhancing young people’s democratic participation, or whether other agendas dominate. I argue that Policy Studies, Vol. 24, Nos 2/3, 2003

Hard wired for risk: neurological science, ‘the adolescent brain’ and developmental theory

This article considers claims now being made about ‘the adolescent brain’. It points out why some of those claims are problematic for methodological, social and philosophical reasons. Attention is given to how some ‘youth experts’ and others have used this research by relying on and reinforcing prejudicial stereotypes about young people as intrinsically problematic. Questions are asked about history and what that teaches us about such claims and what the implications are of uncritically accepting this latest ‘discovery’ in terms of rights and responsibilities. One response of those wedded to the adolescent brain model is to increase the age at which young people can engage in a number of activities. I argue that if we deny young people responsibility and opportunities to build a repertoire of experiences and to learn how events connect to emotions, then we are denying them the chance to develop their capacity for good judgment. The response proposed in this article rests on a different proposition that some young people are sometimes at risk not because their brains are different, but because they have not had the experience or opportunity to develop the skills and judgment that engagement in those activities and experiences supply.

Spaced‐out? Young people's agency, resistance and public space

This article draws on Foucaults claim that power is invariably accompanied by resistance. We argue that the recent academic discourses about space have tended to position young people as the hapless and passive victims of the state and/or of corporate and globalizing economic forces. While it is true that young people are subject to increased policing in public and private domains, we argue that it is important not to loose sight of young peoples ability to actively resist such impositions, and to carve out new, meaningful spaces for themselves. Drawing on the idea of resistance, we consider some of the strategies young people use in asserting and redefining their presence in urban space.

From sociology of deviance to sociology of risk: Youth homelessness and the problem of empiricism

Abstract This article investigates the ‘science of risk’ and claims about its capacity to inform us about young people and the risks they present to themselves and others. To critically review the application of at-risk concepts to young people, two representative case studies are drawn on, with attention given to the ways they are informed by functionalist sociology. The discovery of the youth at risk category has largely supplanted older categories such as ‘delinquency’ and ‘maladjustment’ that were foundational to the sociology of deviance. Yet the methodologies, epistemological assumptions and politics of governance inherent in the older projects remain the same. Too many risk-based researches rely on normative assumptions about social and economic dependence of young people, which when given expression and legitimacy through the research findings reinforce the authority of discourses of ‘youth’ as dependent. Many of the youth at risk researches tend to make assumptions about the category of youth as dependent and in need of close supervision. Risk-based research authorizes researchers as expert speakers about homeless youth at the same time as it delegitimates young people as speakers and active subjects capable of framing the problems in different ways.

Dawkins' Higher Education Reforms and How Metaphors Work in Policy Making

The role of metaphor in the Dawkins education reforms under the Hawke labor government is the focus of this paper. I begin by offering a brief summary of the higher education reforms with a particular focus on the rhetoric that was used during the policy-making process that saw the reintrod uction of university tuition fees. I then clarify what is meant by rhetoric and metaphor, and, using official documents, continue by illustrating the various pedagogical, heuristic, and constitutive functions of key metaphors used in to implement the Dawkins reforms of higher education. I argue that recognising metaphor in official rhetoric is useful because it draws attention to the discursive devices deployed and thereby points to opportunities for contesting the power to name and describe particular groups and social and educational problems. In other words, considering the official rhetoric in higher education reform offers opportunities to change those accounts and to replace them with alternative frameworks for understanding the issues of concern.

‘Measuring Up’? Assessment and students with disabilities in the modern university

In this article, I ask how university students with disabilities negotiate with staff arrangements for alternative assessment practices. I draw on three case studies using a personal pronoun perspective to challenge the conventional view that educational policy and teaching practice are forms of rational action. I demonstrate how the lives of students and staff are typically characterised by unexpected events, disorder, emotion and prejudice. The analytic perspective offered here establishes how meanings, intentions and different viewpoints and alliances emerge as social actors work to create specific faculty and institution cultures. The case studies also reveal what does and what does not work – some of the obstacles – and what needs to be done if we are serious about equity and inclusive education. They include practical assistance in recognising the specific requirements of students with disabilities and how to design alternative assessment for students with specific ‘conditions’. I argue that professional development and specific techniques in curriculum design are needed. Some staff also require help in recognising their policy and legal obligations. A cultural change which identifies and challenges prejudice is a larger task if universities are to become places in which equal opportunity principles and inclusive education are present and actively practised.

Co-Designing a Civics Curriculum: Young People, Democratic Deficit and Political Renewal in the EU.

Contemporary discussion of the ‘crisis in democracy’ displays a tendency to see young people as the problem because they are ‘apolitical’, ‘apathetic’ and ‘disengaged’, or point to deficiencies in institutions deemed responsible for civic education. This discussion normally comes as a prelude to calls for more civics education. This article points to a renewal of politics at the hands of young people relying on new media, and draws on evidence like survey research, case studies and action research projects. This political renewal is occurring largely in response to the assumption of political elites that a ‘politics-as-usual’ will suffice to address the major political challenges of our time. Against the assumption that teachers, curriculum experts and policy-makers already know what kinds of knowledge and skills students need to become good citizens, we make a case for co-designing a contemporary citizenship curriculum with young people to be used for the professional development of policy-makers. We argue that such an intervention is likely to have a salutary educational effect on policy-makers, influence how they see young people’s political engagement and how they set policy agendas. The article also canvasses the protocols such a project might observe.

From ‘harm minimization’ to ‘zero tolerance’ drugs policy in Australia: how the Howard government changed its mind

This article utilizes a case study of Australian drug policy under the Howard Federal Government to demonstrate the value of discourse theory for policy studies. Particular attention is given to the role of metaphor and Lakoffs work on moral politics to examine how the problem of illicit drugs was framed as a prelude to the implementation of a ‘zero tolerance’ drug policy. Policy documents are analysed to show how language is deeply political and integral to the shaping of the policy agenda. Thus, rather than seeing policy-making as a straightforward process whereby policy-makers come to know about the social problems or the natural world empirically, the approach used in this article indicates the value in investigating the generative role of language and how that informs policy. In short, this article analyses how language and particular frameworks are used in policy-making communities to persuade various audiences to see ‘the drug problem’ in a particular way and to encourage support for a particular course of action.

‘Cruel optimism’: a southern theory perspective on the European Union's Youth Strategy, 2008–2012

European Union youth policy since the 1990s has been ostensibly committed to enhancing the social participation of young people. This study explores the reliance of the 2009 European Union (EU) Youth Strategy on a combination of OECD ‘active society’ and human capital theory which seeks to increase educational participation rates in Europe with the goal of creating more and better opportunities for young people and to promote active citizenship, social inclusion and solidarity. The authors adopt a ‘southern theory’ perspective to open up a range of problems with the EU Youth Strategy which begins to indicate why, contrary to expectations, this policy has failed to ameliorate the increasing levels of youth unemployment, underemployment and child and youth poverty. The study concludes that the EU Youth Strategy has consolidated ‘a relation of cruel optimism’ when what is desired, in this case more education, has become an obstacle to human flourishing.