YOUTH JUSTICE & APPLIED SOCIOLOGY

Youth justice & applied sociology

Youth justice & Applied Sociology

Introduction

This essay traces the changing youth and community work landscape over the last thirty years and acknowledge that voluntary youth work and community development have been long-standing features of Irish society.

Youth Justice & Applied Sociology

According to the 2007 census, proportionally speaking, Ireland has the largest youth population in the EU, with some 35.31% (1.49 million persons in absolute terms) of the population aged under twenty-five. Accompanying this, the governance of this youth population has grown significantly in recent years, with a large and varied group of associations, institutions and policies impacting on how many young people experience their lives. (Damien, 2010, 12) Emblematic of this is the recent growth of a range of youth services in which planned programmatic intervention with young people outside of the formal schooling system has become an increasingly important aspect of social policy. Many of these services are provided by voluntary civil society organisations, who are reliant on the state for financial support, and who increasingly work within statutory policy and programmatic frameworks, such as the 2001 Youth Work Act, the National Youth Work Development Plan, Youth Diversion Projects, Community Based Drugs Initiatives, and many, many others. In addition to these relatively recent initiatives, there is a long and proud tradition of working with young people through youth associations such as scouting and guides organisations, and faith-based groups. Alongside this rich and complex matrix of organisations and associations who work with young people is the rapidly changing environment within which young people now live. It is the central aim of this conference to explore this complex picture, and to give a voice to those active citizens who play a significant role in constructing this most vital of social landscapes. (Damien, 2010, 12)

Before media presence in this country, Irish society was based on a simple, rigid class system based primarily on wealth. However, since the global media explosion hundreds of sub-cultures have been spawned throughout this country.

We only have to look at the youth of our country today to see the dramatic effect that the media has had on our society. Such diversity could not have been dreamt of among the youth of Ireland sixty years ago. While in the past Irish society treated children very much in a "should be seen and not heard" manner, the Irish youth of today personify a very different attitude. Freedom of expression is a valued asset amongst the Irish youth of today and it has been largely derived from the media. Television, press and the Internet have made today's youth open to material that has caused sub-cultures, which I mentioned earlier to form. We only have to look at the club culture in this country to find evidence of the media's effect. Such lifestyles as this are a direct result of the media and the messages it has carried to the youth of contemporary Irish society. The confident, outspoken manner of the Irish young people of today is, ...