On the Ground Interviews with three youth workers

Abstract

For this Special Issue, we interviewed three practitioners from the Edinburgh area in order to get a brief snapshot of youth work on the ground in the current context.  While this sample is by no means representative, it nonetheless offers a glimpse into the contemporary world of youth work and illuminates themes and concerns which are more widely expressed: the adverse consequences of longstanding inequality and poverty - the outcome of wider social and economic processes - as they manifest in available resources, family relationships and personal anxieties; competing expectations, demands and loyalties; a social media world which too often creates and amplifies fear and self-doubt; a sense of pessimism about the future which limits personal aspirations.