Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
This chapter explores the kinds of arts practices that flourish within youth work settings. Two international case studies are presented, which demonstrate young people’s take-up of common culture. These include Dancehearts, based at Annantalo in Finland, which provides inclusive dance sessions; and Bolt FM (Scotland), which is a program that gives young people a voice using radio. These two programs exemplify, in particular, the value of informal education and kinaesthetic pedagogies. This chapter argues that youth arts programs that accommodate common culture, for example those that engage with DIY and digital arts practices, are more likely to be responsive, engaging and ultimately impactful for the young people involved.
This chapter contains two case studies which highlight best practice in supporting and celebrating cultural democracy and practical insights for arts programs with young people. The case studies include Propel Youth Arts WA (Western Australia), which is an arts-based youth advocacy organisation, and SWAN Youth Service (Ireland), which devises programs for young people to explore different artistic mediums and processes. SWAN places an importance on the arts as an opportunity for informal education, and its Reckless Arts program, which hosts an artist-in-residence, will be the focus of this case study. Through these exemplars, the value of youth-led arts programming and positioning young people as cultural experts as a way of celebrating cultural democracy within youth arts programs is demonstrated. In this chapter, data from interviews with young people, arts practitioners, festival coordinators, youth workers and project managers is presented in order to celebrate alternative cultural forms through youth-led arts programming.
This chapter argues for the value of the arts in supporting participatory democracy and social change and explores youth arts programs which hold cultural citizenship at their heart. Two case studies will be presented that demonstrate the value of arts programs for the development of cultural citizenship. These are Chicago Arts and Music Project, as an example of an arts program which responds to the needs of local communities and empowers young people towards social action; and a European program from Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. (Youth and Culture) in Germany, which uses the arts as a tool for social inclusion and the celebration of cultural difference. It argues that youth arts programs should be supporting and cultivating young people as cultural citizens, emphasising the importance of dialogue on ‘otherness’ and the value of building community relations.
This chapter explores three diverse approaches of global youth arts practice, which includes creative arts youth work (CAYW), the arts as intervention (AI) and positive youth development (PYD). Each of these trends in current practice highlights different ways arts programs function, and the affordances for and positioning of the young people involved. Following the mapping of international trends, this chapter introduces the three key themes that run throughout the book – common culture, cultural citizenship and cultural democracy – as alternative ways of configuring youth arts practice. This chapter not only maps the field, but also sets frameworks for the future development of youth arts programs.
This final chapter returns to youth arts programs in order to investigate implications for practice and how these can be made reality. It focuses, in particular, on maintaining youth work principles, artistic quality, partnerships, planning and evaluation. Two models are drawn from the case studies – the youth arts festival and working with an artist-in-residence – as exemplars of how the arts and young people can be at the centre of every program.
How do young people develop through youth arts programs and how can these programs reflect and extend young people’s personal interests? How can youth arts support participatory democracy and social change?
Frances Howard puts forward a powerful case for the value of youth arts programs, whilst acknowledging and interrogating the complexities involved, including unequal access to provision and the class-based harm that can be inadvertently practiced within them.
Drawing on the author’s own practice experience, alongside a range of international case studies showing best practice, this grounded and accessible text will be welcome reading to academics, students and practitioners across Education, Youth and Community courses.
This chapter defines the problem which this book seeks to solve: the unequal programming and application of youth arts programmes. It problematises claims in research and education policy that the arts can include all young people. Drawing on the dichotomy between ‘high’ arts and ‘low’ culture, the classed-based take-up of youth work is explored. The structure and aims of the book are set out.
This chapter examines problematic labels which are placed upon groups of young people, such as ‘at-risk’, NEET, disengaged. It argues that access to arts programmes is socially streamed, using youth work settings as an example. This chapter highlights that the sites in which young people access arts projects often dictate what kind of practices and pedagogies they receive. It raises issues of social justice and explores the conditions of learning that are important for young people under these categorisations.
This book seeks to address the unequal programming and application of youth arts programs, drawing on the dichotomy between ‘high’ arts and ‘low’ culture and the classed-based take-up of youth work. Reporting on international exemplars, attention is drawn to the conditions required for youth arts programs to be successful, while acknowledging the challenges of this work. The discourse of the role of youth work, and specifically how arts-based work can make significant contributions to a more just society, is explored.
The book addresses current policy contexts of ‘austerity’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘at-risk’ youth, which are frequently drawn on to justify arts programs for young people and extends the discussion on deficit identities from the field of youth work to arts-based pedagogies. In offering a way forward, by focusing on the practices and pedagogies that ‘work’ in youth arts programs, three key theoretical perspectives are introduced, which engage with a sociological analysis of these programs: common culture, cultural democracy and cultural citizenship.
This book seeks to address the unequal programming and application of youth arts programs, drawing on the dichotomy between ‘high’ arts and ‘low’ culture and the classed-based take-up of youth work. Reporting on international exemplars, attention is drawn to the conditions required for youth arts programs to be successful, while acknowledging the challenges of this work. The discourse of the role of youth work, and specifically how arts-based work can make significant contributions to a more just society, is explored.
The book addresses current policy contexts of ‘austerity’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘at-risk’ youth, which are frequently drawn on to justify arts programs for young people and extends the discussion on deficit identities from the field of youth work to arts-based pedagogies. In offering a way forward, by focusing on the practices and pedagogies that ‘work’ in youth arts programs, three key theoretical perspectives are introduced, which engage with a sociological analysis of these programs: common culture, cultural democracy and cultural citizenship.
