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Social workers today not only face competing claims concerning the rights and needs of children and youth, but they also confront contradictions between policy and practice. Social workers are expected to fight for the best interests of the child, even though financial support for children's welfare and education grows scarce. They are asked to save "children at risk," while, at the same time, they are urged to protect communities from "risky children"; and they are encouraged to "leave no child behind," while also implementing "zero tolerance" policies to keep educational environments free from troubled youth.
A cutting-edge text that deals directly with the confusion and complexity of modern child welfare, Childhood, Youth, and Social Work in Transformation features contributions from a truly interdisciplinary group of practitioners, scholars, and activists. Examining the theoretical, political, and practical aspects of working with youth today, this volume breaks free from existing modes of thought and strategies of practice and prompts readers to critically reflect on accepted approaches and new possibilities of action.
Contributors analyze how economic, political, and cultural changes over the last several decades have reshaped the experiences and representations of children and youth in the United States. They examine conceptions of troubled children and youth in contemporary policies and programs and assess why certain discourses about troubling youth are so compelling to professionals, policymakers, and the public. In conclusion, these skilled professionals explore the reinvention of social work policy and practice, including the need to forge relationships that respect the experiences, rights, and personhood of children and youth.
Lynn M. Nybell is professor of social work at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a Ph.D. in social work and anthropology from the University of Michigan, and her research interests include examining constructions of childhood in contemporary social work policy and practice.
Jeffrey J. Shook is an assistant professor of social work and law at the University of Pittsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan and a JD from American University, Washington College of Law. His research interests involve the intersections of law, policy, and practice in the lives of children and youth.
Janet L. Finn is professor of social work and MSW program director at The University of Montana. She holds a Ph.D. in social work and anthropology from the University of Michigan, and her research interests are in the areas of community practice, youth, gender, globalization, and critical social work theory.
Foreword, by Rosemary Sarri
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Conceptual Framework, by Lynn M. Nybell, Jeffrey J. Shook, and Janet L. Finn
Part I: Exploring Changing Discourses of Childhood and Youth
1. Making Trouble: Representations of Social Work, Youth, and Pathology, by Janet L. Finn
2. Missing Children: Representing Children Away from Placement, by Lynn M. Nybell
3. It Ain't as Simple as It Seems: Risky Youths in School, Morality, and Service Markets, by Linwood H. Cousins
4. "Stop the Superjail for Kids": Youth Activism to Reclaim Childhood in the Juvenile Justice System, by Jennifer Tilton
5. Good Mothers/Teen Mothers: Claiming Rights and Responsibilities, by Deborah Freedman Lustig
6. The Well-Being of Children and the Question of Attachment, by Kerrie Ghenie and Charlie Wellenstein
Part II: Contexts and Settings
7. Childhood by Geography: Toward a Framework of Rights, Responsibilities, and EntitlementsJeffrey J. Shook
8. From "Youth Home" to "Juvenile Detention": Constructing Disciplined Children in Detroit, by Luke Bergmann
9. Educating All Our Children, by Ruth Zweifler
10. Constructing Ability and Disability Among Preschoolers in the Crestview Headstart Program, by Patricia A. Jessup
11. Children and Youth in a Medicalized World: Young People's Agency in Mental Health Treatment, by Ben Stride-Darnley
12. Accounting for Risk: Children and Youth in Community-based Reform, by Lynn M. Nybell
13. At Risk for Becoming Neoliberal Subjects: Rethinking the "Normal" Middle-Class Family, by Rachel Heiman
Part III: Reinventing Social Work with Children and Youth
14. Child's-Eye View, by Janet L. Finn
15. On Project SpeakOUT, by Derrick Jackson
16. The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project: A Case Study in Law and Social Justice, by Maryam Ahranjani
17. "You May Even be President of the United States One Day"? Challenging Commercialized Feminism in Programming for Girls in Juvenile Justice, by Sara Goodkind
18. Youth Uprising: Gritty Youth Leadership Development and Communal Transformation, by Jennifer Tilton
19. Young People as Leaders in Conflict Resolution, by Charles D. Garvin
20. Y.O.U.T.H. Training Project: Foster Youth as Teachers to Transform Social Work, by Lori Fryzel and Jamie Lee Evans
Afterword
About the Contributors
Index