A Genealogy of Youth Work’s Languages: Founders

Abstract

A genealogy is a way of viewing a discourse’s heritage that supports our understanding of it in the present. Here I look at one aspect of the genealogy of youth work; its language. In this article I set out the importance of a discourse’s language and describe the different ways it can be translated through its existence. I look at youth work’s foundational moment: the environment that gave it birth, the people who brought it into being, and the language they used to name its characteristics. This, I suggest, provided youth work with a particular language; a Christian language.