https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

Preparing the books to read every day is enjoyable for many people. However, there are still many people who also don't like reading. This is a problem. But, when you can support others to start reading, it will be better. One of the books that can be recommended for new readers is experience and education. This book is not kind of difficult book to read. It can be read and understand by the new readers.

Experience and Education.

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1994, Vol 39(2), 225. Reviews the book, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992). The author's commendable effort to specify a model of mass opinion formation offers readers an introduction to the prevailing vi

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

The article begins by observing that, over the last decade, the idea of youth participation has once more become a popular part of contemporary political talk both in Australia and in many Western societies. Indeed most Western governments now advocate enhanced youth participation as part of a discourse about modern citizenship, so much so that it has become a policy cliche to say ‘increased youth participation’ will ‘empower’ young people, help build community and remedy a range of social problems. It is also noted that, if the idea of participation itself is an old idea central to the liberal democratic tradition, the current ‘rediscovery’ of youth participation is arguably part of that political orthodoxy. Drawing on selected State, national and Commonwealth government youth documents, the question is asked whether the official enthusiasm for youth participation has much to do with democratic practice. It is argued that the recent government enthusiasm for youth participation is problematic for three r...

Mixed messages: youth participation and democratic practice

Many young people born since the early 1980s face unprecedented social and economic disadvantage While they spend more time in education, even university graduates now find it difficult to access full-time work, find affordable decent housing or enjoy the economic security needed to start families This book draws on the voices of young people to document their experiences in increasingly unequal societies like the USA, United Kingdom, France, Spain and Australia While governments and experts refer to new technologies, globalisation and risk society to explain their plight, the authors maintain we need look no further than recent public policies adopted by governments wedded to advancing market capitalism to understand why this is happening This book draws on a wealth of evidence including young people's own stories to document how they are now faring in increasingly unequal societies like America, Britain, Australia, France and Spain It points to systematic generational inequality as those born since 1980 become the first generation to have a lower standard of living than previous generations While governments and experts typically explain this by referring to globalization, new technologies or young people's deficits, the authors of this book offer a new political economy of generations which identifies the central role played by governments promoting neoliberal policies that exacerbate existing social inequalities based on age, ethnicity, gender and class The book is a must read for social science students, human service workers and policy-makers and indeed for anyone interested in understanding the impact of government policy over the last 40 years on young people

The Precarious Generation: A Political Economy of Young People

In recent years the idea of youth participation has achieved an almost obligatory status in youth policy documents. An uncritical reading would leave many with the expectation that this approach will deliver increased democratic participation for young people. This impression is understandable given the way language used draws on the rhetoric of democratic participation. A policy initiative that increases the democratic participation of young people is important and would mark a major shift in their citizenship status. Such an proposal would be important because the question of participation and citizenship matters for that part of the population (namely, young people) who by reason of explicit and implicit criteria are excluded from many political processes and denied many rights most adults take for granted. Secondly, such a development would be significant in terms of our ability to legitimately claim to be democratic. This is because before such a claim can be made it needs to be generally accepted that a reasonable basis exists for excluding particular groups (namely young people) from what is an otherwise widely available set of political, civil rights and abilities. Indeed current practices of denying young people1 their citizenship rights raises questions about the grounds on which such exclusion is legitimate. A further reason why such a policy initiative would be significant is that increased opportunities for young peoples’ democratic participation would help remedy the power imbalance which makes them easy targets for those who want to make a name for themselves in the political arena. In other words, affording young people opportunities to engage in the public sphere, to actively participate in public discourses provides opportunities to narrate themselves and to challenge the ways ‘youth’ are represented. Yet, despite the implied promise of augmented democratic participation for young people, what recent policies actually offer are measures that have the effect of extending the governance of young people. I argue that the recent fascination with ‘youth participation’ is part of a reformist discourse that talks of democracy, increased autonomy and modern citizenship for young people as a solution to a range of problems, yet it overlooks the problem of young peoples’ negligible political status. I argue here that the new discourse of ‘youth at risk’, in the context of emerging third way politics, offered governments, and the apparatus of specific administrations (i.e., education, justice, health, etc.) opportunities to revitalise older practices of government which took advantage of the resurgence of economic liberalism and individualism to promote new styles of youth policy. I draw on the work of Cruishank (1999) and governmentality theory more generally to ask whether recent officially declared commitments to increased youth participation are directed towards enhancing young people’s democratic participation, or whether other agendas dominate. I argue that Policy Studies, Vol. 24, Nos 2/3, 2003

Youth participation: a new mode of government

The political web: media, participation and alternative democracy

This article considers claims now being made about ‘the adolescent brain’. It points out why some of those claims are problematic for methodological, social and philosophical reasons. Attention is given to how some ‘youth experts’ and others have used this research by relying on and reinforcing prejudicial stereotypes about young people as intrinsically problematic. Questions are asked about history and what that teaches us about such claims and what the implications are of uncritically accepting this latest ‘discovery’ in terms of rights and responsibilities. One response of those wedded to the adolescent brain model is to increase the age at which young people can engage in a number of activities. I argue that if we deny young people responsibility and opportunities to build a repertoire of experiences and to learn how events connect to emotions, then we are denying them the chance to develop their capacity for good judgment. The response proposed in this article rests on a different proposition that so...

Judith Bessant

Papers

Mixed messages: youth participation and democratic practice

The Precarious Generation: A Political Economy of Young People

Youth participation: a new mode of government

The political web: media, participation and alternative democracy

Hard wired for risk: neurological science, ‘the adolescent brain’ and developmental theory