The Working Group on Higher Education in Youth Work is a closed group that brings together academics involved in the university education of youth workers, youth work practitioners and policy makers. Bringing these three perspectives together – training, practice and policy – allows us to reflect jointly on youth work and on the young people it serves.
The group aims to offer a shared space for reflection and for the exchange of experiences, concerns and knowledge. In particular, it seeks to:
The group is conceived as an informal space for connection and dialogue. Within this framework:
The group is coordinated by:
We are working in online meetings. The access to the meetings can be gained through registration in our moderated mailing list.
Weaponized Neutrality: Invocations of Neutrality as a Means of Delegitimization in the Fields of Youth Work
Jana Sämann, University of Siegen (DFG Research Training Group “Consequences of Social Assistance”)
For years, “neutrality” has surfaced as a contested buzzword in German education debates. A far-right party in particular invokes an alleged neutrality imperative to pressure actors in youth work, especially those pursuing emancipatory approaches. It does so despite legal and professional assessments rejecting “neutrality” as an appropriate label for social pedagogy. Drawing on an interview study with youth work professionals, this contribution examines how these interpellations of neutrality affect professional self-understanding and educational practice.
The findings show three patterns:
These patterns point to strategic discourse manipulation by right-wing actors. Repeated invocations of neutrality discredit individual organisations and projects and, as discursive interventions, delegitimise professional working methods as such.
About the speaker. Jana Sämann studied Social Work (B.A.) and Educational Science (M.A.). She is a research associate in the DFG Research Training Group “Consequences of Social Assistance” at the University of Siegen. Her research explores civic education in youth work, with a particular focus on the interpellation of neutrality in education. She also lectures in the B.A. Social Work programme at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen.
Introduction of the results of the PD4D project (Professional Development for Diversity), which researched how youth work is taught in higher education.
The last part of the meeting will be an open exchange on what we want this working group to be. We will discuss:
Topics of interest: which topics participants would be interested in working on in future seminars.