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Critical Social Policy
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Empowering the powerful: Challenging hidden processes of marginalization in youth work policy and practice in Belgium

Filip Coussée

Ghent University, Belgium, Filip.Coussee{at}UGent.be

Griet Roets

Ghent University, Belgium

Maria De Bie

Ghent University, Belgium

On the basis of extensive research, we turn a critical eye on often unnoticed processes of marginalization at play in current youth work policy and practice in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Although the historical situation seems different from that in the UK, current policies show similar results: vulnerable youth is increasingly monitored into particular target categories and separated into distinct and professionalized youth work initiatives. Inspired by critical class theory, we raise the veil of youth work as a hidden civilization strategy that empowers the yet powerful and has served the often unconscious agenda of enforcing social control on vulnerable youth to create order in late capitalist societies. The perspective of the critical social theorist Hermann Giesecke who perceives youth work as `politische Bildung' (a process of political socialization) allows us to explore strategies for inclusion which can be implemented to energize future youth work praxis.

Key Words: critical class theory • inclusive youth work • social pedagogy • vulnerable youth

Critical Social Policy, Vol. 29, No. 3, 421-442 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0261018309105178
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