Abstract
In this second edition release infused with new material (previously titled Working with Girls and Young Women in Community Settings, 1996), Janet Batsleer reflects on 2 years of interviews and participant observation research on youth and community work projects with women in the United Kingdom. The transition from girlhood to womanhood is a socially mediated one—complex, challenging, and different for every woman, yet often culturally minimized, invalidated, and underresourced. Informal youth work is diverse—organized and led by a variety of staff—not limited to social workers with statutory authority or professional obligations. Therefore, her goal in this book is to explore and document the role of current informal youth work in the lives of girls and women while connecting this work to feminist theory and principles for a varied audience of readers. In this book, youth work is primarily analyzed on the macro scale—in relation to broader historical and social contexts—rather than on the micro scale of actual intragroup dynamics.
Using case examples, narratives, and reflections from current youth and community workers, many practical challenges in informal youth work are identified and discussed. Batsleer is explicit in her adherence to critical feminism from the beginning and acknowledges diversity (or difference) in women’s experience as an important central theme in the book; and one necessary to consider in all informal youth work. However, she tends to focus more attention on particular aspects of diversity, such as race, sexual orientation, and motherhood, than others, such as colonialism, religion, or immigration status.
The book aims for breadth of coverage and is organized thematically, making it well suited to be read fully or in sections. Basic knowledge of feminist theory is necessary to comprehend the terms and frameworks Batsleer discusses. Therefore, it would complement courses explicitly exploring the links between gender, feminism, and social work from a critical perspective in academic, continuing professional development, or workplace training settings. The book will also appeal to practitioners such as feminist-oriented individuals entering the informal youth work sector for the first time, or current youth workers interested in understanding how a feminist principles can be integrated into practice and how challenges can be addressed.
Batsleer focuses on the U.K. context in her analyses of social policy developments and the political climate, which will likely appeal to U.K.-based academics, students, and practitioners. Occasionally, international examples from other Western countries are used, but overall the book does not focus on informal youth and community work in any other countries. However, the current trend toward neoliberal governance and policy is happening in many Western countries, making the book relevant to a variety of locations.
One of the limitations, which Batsleer acknowledges, is “the absence of voices of young women who have participated in girls’ work projects” (p. 6), which potentially would have strengthened the book’s overall feminist stance. Also, curiously, very little attention is given to the role of information and communications technologies in the lives of young women today, particularly in the U.K. context where mobile technologies and social media increasingly mediate much of the communication she discusses. Overall, Youth Working with Girls and Women in Community Settings documents the feminist knowledge in the informal youth work sector, providing a compilation of case examples for like-minded practitioners.