‘“Handing over our ethics?” Youth work conversations in times of austerity’

ABSTRACT

This paper explores a sample of youth workers’ narratives in which ethical concerns over cuts to youth service funding was a prominent topic of conversation. It relies on data drawn from a qualitative inquiry into professional youth work practice that was contextualised by the austerity measures of the Conservative led Coalition Government in the United Kingdom (2010–15). The youth workers shared concerns that young people were being ‘abandoned’, expressed frustration over managerial systems and identified dilemmas over prescribed funding that might be construed as ‘handing over our ethics’ and at odds with their professional values and practice. A discursive analysis afforded glimpses of engaging narrative techniques and social interaction underpinning these accounts, and illuminates professional beliefs and debates, contributing to an ‘accessible data archive’ [Have, P. ten. 2007. Doing Conversation Analysis. 2nd ed. London: Sage] of this community of practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth worker narratives
• austerity
• ethical dilemmas
• discourse analysis

Acknowledgement

I wish to thank the study participants for their interest and willingness to contribute to this pilot study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Paula Pope has a background in youth work practice, education and research, and is currently a post-graduate research student at Keele University, School of Public Policy and Professional Practice, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG.

Notes

¹JNC – Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth Leaders and Community Centre Wardens (LGA 2012)