Contemporary Irish youth work policy and practice: A Governmental analysis

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the governmental rationalities informing youth work policy in the contemporary Irish context. Since 2008, the implementation of neoliberalized austerity in Ireland has been destructive in terms of the number of young people's services closing and disruptions to youth work provision. Adopting a governmentality perspective, we argue that recent youth work policy developments are also undermining the integrity of youth work as youth work. Against current governmental rationalities, which privilege evidence-based practice, value for money approaches and the delivery of prescribed outcomes, we argue for a re-imagining of youth work for a postneoliberal, postevidence-based practice world.

KEYWORDS:

• Governmentality
• Ireland
• neoliberalized austerity
• youth work

Notes

1. In making this assertion, the authors recognize that the terminology used to denote “youth work” as well as the values and assumptions underpinning policy and practice are themselves contested and that the trends outlined in this article may not be reflective of those in non-European contexts.

2. NSETS's membership comprises Government appointees for both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland alongside representatives of the voluntary youth sector. Its own structure thus reflects a more general partnership approach that claims to support the “representation of all the key stakeholders in youth work” (NSETS, 2013, p. 4).

3. A Government established “Forum on Philanthropy and Fundraising” (2012, p. 10) asserted that the “not-for-profit sector itself also needs to adapt to new economic realities, and to operate more efficiently and more innovatively. The sector is expected to become better at targeting a more diverse range of supports, including partnerships within the corporate sector.”

4. In the Republic of Ireland, between 1987 and 2015, The Atlantic Philanthropies provided grants in the region of $1.2 billion to organizations working in range of social and human rights fields, including those active on issues impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, children and young people, older people, migrants, and refugees, among others (The Atlantic Philanthropies, 2017).

5. It includes The Centre for Effective Services, The Child and Family Research Centre at National University of Ireland Galway, Foróige Best Practice Unit, the Prevention, and Early Intervention Network.

6. The NQSF was introduced in 2010 by the Office for the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and it is a condition for funding that all youth work organizations participate in this quality assurance process.

7. On September 20, 2016, Youth Work Ireland in conjunction with the Irish Department of Children and Youth Affairs hosted a youth work symposium on generating evidence from practice. Also in 2016, the NYCI launched its “8 Steps to inclusive Youth Work” toolkit for organizations. In publicizing the resource, organizations were assured that it would help them to report within the NQSF, to write their continuous improvement plans, and to develop a logic model toward realizing the outcomes of the National Youth Strategy.

8. The National Youth Council of Ireland identifies itself as a “membership-led umbrella organization that represents and supports the interests of voluntary youth organizations” (NYCI, n.d., http://www.youth.ie/about_nyci)

9. In its foreword, the incumbent Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly contended that “improving outcomes for young people is everyone's business” (DCYA, 2015, p. v).

10. Rather, the NYCI director lamented the strategy was “not as far reaching or as ambitious” as the Council would like (NYCI, 2015a).