relationships between young people that extend beyond the project, although she no longer works with YEA she is still close friends with many of the colleagues she worked with on the project.
Space
The development of the YEA model was particularly informed by an article by Barry Percy-Smith (2010), who states that ‘participation is influenced by the nature of the spaces in which it happens’ (Percy-Smith, 2010, p 109) and argues for a need to rethink participation in terms of creating spaces for effective youth participation. Percy-Smith also talks about participative spaces as sites of social learning and advocates for widening the focus away from decision-making structures (see also Chapter 16 in this book).
YEA indicated a move away from a more structured approach to youth participation towards an approach that prioritised creating spaces for young people to identify and explore issues that they think are important. Katherine and Myada both use the phrase “safe space” to describe their experience of YEA and credited these safe spaces with supporting their own personal journey of developing their own identify, interests and values. They emphasise how the most important things that happened in these spaces were not always the planned activities but, instead, the times when conversations went off on tangents. Myada and Katherine describe how the freedom to let the conversation stray from a set programme and be led by the interests of the young people offers opportunities for them to learn and reflect together, to strengthen their bond as a group, to develop their sense of self in the world and practice self-determination in a safe and supportive group. Myada says that “tangents are where we find our passions”.
Such willingness to allow meandering tangents also challenges the power dynamic between adults and young people. In the longer version of Myada’s story, before it was edited to fit this chapter, she described one action research group where young people were constantly distracted. She knew that staff were frustrated because the group wasn’t making ‘progress’ but still let them explore their own ideas and conversations. While young people’s priority is more often the relationships and the opportunities for personal learning and growth, decision makers and managers almost always see relationships as a means to achieve the desired outcome of young people influencing decisions made. The participation worker often occupies a space in between these different priorities, sometimes pushing young people to stay focused on a task at hand, sometimes persuading adults that time spent doing activities that do not directly or obviously contribute to a project’s outcomes are still valuable. There is, therefore, an ongoing complex dance between tangents and structure, young people and staff, process and outcomes. While young people working with YEA often described the project as ‘youth led’, Christina would describe it as a partnership between young people and adults where power is openly negotiated and shared in different measures at different times.
Conclusion
In theorising about youth participation, it can be easy to forget that the people interacting with the projects are humans who affect and are affected by each other and by the work in multiple and complex ways. These three stories tell about very different and yet intertwined experiences with a youth participation project. We make no claims that our stories are representative of experiences in participation projects generally, or indeed of experiences with YEA specifically. Rather we believe that starting with our experience can be a useful entry point to thinking about youth participation and, in particular, the importance of relationships and positive spaces that support young people in participation projects.
Notes
1Certain sections and details have been removed for ethical reasons.
2The action research group looking at gender equality published a children’s storybook called Alex and Charlie challenging gender stereotypes. For more information, see https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/learning-publications/alex-charlie?documentId=11922&categoryId=20264
3 http://triumph.sphsu.gla.ac.uk/young-people
4An abbreviation for ‘relationships, sexual health, parenting’ education.
5The name Sue is a pseudonym and this snapshot has been discussed with both young women concerned.
References
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James, A. and Prout, A. (1997) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociology of Childhood, London: Routledge.
Le Borgne, C. (2017) Implementing Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making: The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations, Centre for Research on Children and Families Briefing 87, Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. Available from: https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/21025
Le Borgne, C. and Tisdall, E.K.M. (2017) ‘Children’s participation: questioning competence and competencies?’, Social Inclusion, 5(3): 122–30.
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Frontrunners Against Inequality: the stories of Darpan and Barwaqo
Darpan Raj Gautam and Barwaqo Jama Hussein
Darpan Raj Gautam and Barwaqo Jama Hussein participated in the project Part of the Community, organised by ActionAid Denmark, a Danish non-governmental organisation (NGO). The project began in 2014 as a collaboration between ActionAid and a youth club (Kantorparken’s Youth Club) in the neighbourhood of Bispebjerg, Copenhagen. The aim was to establish a forum for young people in the club to help them gain influence and democratic experiences. Since then, working in collaboration with local agents, Action Aid has launched various kinds of youth communities in five neighbourhoods of Greater Copenhagen. The project also included a series of public events dedicated to themes of inequality and activities such as participation in the annual People’s Meeting in Denmark (a four-day political event on the island of Bornholm).
Darpan and Barwaqo’s stories are based on interviews with two researchers (Maria Bruselius-Jensen and Anne Mette W. Nielsen) centring on a journey map. As a method, journey mapping aims to create a map of the elements interview subjects find to be the most significant in a project or process they have been part of (see also Chapter 14 in this book). In this case, Darpan and Barwaqo chose different formats (a timeline and a sketch) for their maps, but both used their maps to connect their participation in the project with previous events and experiences