‘Capturing the magic': grassroots perspectives on evaluating open youth work

Youth work’s informal and youth-centred nature raises challenges for evaluation, challenges that are intensified by the growing dominance of measurement, market values and surveillance in the context of the neoliberal restructuring of youth services. This article builds on Griffiths’ (2012, Why Joy in Education Is an Issue for Socially Just Policies. Journal of Education Policy 27 (5): 655–670) philosophical argument for valuing the intrinsic contribution of education, thus conceptualising evaluation as encompassing more than measuring outcomes. It reports the findings of a three-year qualitative study in eight open youth work settings in England that investigated the perspectives of 143 young people, youth workers and policy makers on evaluation in youth work. While young people and youth workers had often participated in evaluations they found meaningful, some approaches to impact measurement were experienced as too formal, intrusive, insensitive and burdensome. The article argues that evaluation and accountability processes must be practice-informed, youth-centred, and anti-oppressive. It recommends the participatory and collaborative development of diverse methods and approaches to evaluation that ‘capture the magic’ of youth work while enabling further reflection and development of practice

There's a cupboard full of pasta! Beyond sustenance: reflections on youth work and commensality

Commensality is an area of inquiry concerned with practices of eating and, in particular, eating at a shared table, often explored through ethnographic studies of ritual and culture (Fischler, 2011). This article seeks to reflect on youth work in relation to commensality. Youth work is a practice of open access, informal education with young people that generally takes place in youth clubs or in detached or street-based settings, where young people interact with youth workers by choice. We consider practices of food sharing observed in youth work settings, their meaning, and their value beyond sustenance. When viewed through the lens of commensality, practices of food sharing in youth work settings can be articulated as a conscious method of practice, we argue, in need of further discussion. We explore this aspect of practice in youth work settings based on informal learning, social development, and abundance; considering the tensions youth workers face against a backdrop of austerity, child poverty and the neoliberal impact of the reduction of youth services. Despite this we contend that there is value in identifying, locating, and articulating the relationship between commensality and youth work. Drawing on research across eight different youth work settings in England, this article positions youth work as a site of commensal experience for young people and youth workers, extending the discourse around youth work and creating links with other areas of inquiry such as anthropology, sociology, informal education, and community development

There's a cupboard full of pasta! Beyond sustenance: reflections on youth work and commensality

Commensality is an area of inquiry concerned with practices of eating and, in particular, eating at a shared table, often explored through ethnographic studies of ritual and culture (Fischler, 2011). This article seeks to reflect on youth work in relation to commensality. Youth work is a practice of open access, informal education with young people that generally takes place in youth clubs or in detached or street-based settings, where young people interact with youth workers by choice. We consider practices of food sharing observed in youth work settings, their meaning, and their value beyond sustenance. When viewed through the lens of commensality, practices of food sharing in youth work settings can be articulated as a conscious method of practice, we argue, in need of further discussion. We explore this aspect of practice in youth work settings based on informal learning, social development, and abundance; considering the tensions youth workers face against a backdrop of austerity, child poverty and the neoliberal impact of the reduction of youth services. Despite this we contend that there is value in identifying, locating, and articulating the relationship between commensality and youth work. Drawing on research across eight different youth work settings in England, this article positions youth work as a site of commensal experience for young people and youth workers, extending the discourse around youth work and creating links with other areas of inquiry such as anthropology, sociology, informal education, and community development

‘It’s a great place to find where you belong’: creating, curating and valuing place and space in open youth work

Open youth work is a practice of informal education that operates in a variety of spaces, from youth clubs and community centres to street corners. This article highlights the distinctive spatiality of these settings, their valuable contribution to young people’s lives, and how they are actively created and curated by those involved. Rooted in the perspectives of young people and youth workers who took part in a three-year qualitative study in eight youth work settings in England, it proposes that open youth work can provide a relational, educational, and potentially liberatory ‘third place’ beyond home, school and work. The research found that youth work provides young people with spatially and temporally fluid places for belonging, association, and understanding and acting on the unequal contexts in which they live. We argue for more critical reflection on the distinctively spatial aspects of youth work, including more engagement between youth work and the geographies of childhood and youth. As well as having implications for youth work practice and training, this engagement could support the (re-)imagining of a wide range of ‘third places’ of refuge and critical democracy for children and young people, in a context of oppression and inequalities

Valuing Youth Work – Research-informed practical resources for youth workers: Reflecting on the value and evaluation of youth work

Our three-year study, ‘Rethinking Impact, Evaluation and Accountability in Youth Work’ found that youth workers and organisations are keen to evaluate their work. Yet, it can be challenging to carry out evaluation in ways that support informal education and anti-oppressive practice, both of which are central to youth work. Our research found that youth workers and youth organisations navigate these issues most successfully when there is the flexibility to take creative, reflective, and youth-centred approaches to evaluation. This resource raises questions for reflection to support youth workers and organisations to develop youth-centred, participatory, anti-oppressive evaluation practices. While it is primarily for youth workers and youth work managers, practitioners working in related settings may also find it useful

Assessing planning decisions by activity type during the scheduling process

Existing activity-based models still make assumptions about scheduling decision processes that are not well-informed by empirical evidence. In this article, a step forward is taken to better understand the activity-scheduling process and to improve activity-based models. In particular, different planning decision mechanisms depending on several activity type classifications are explored. First, models describing the planning of several aggregate activity types are considered. For these activities, three planning decisions are studied: location, planning time horizon and rescheduling. The 'with whom' planning decision is also studied when subtypes of recreational/entertainment activities are investigated in depth. Significant differences are found in modelling results for each activity type and subtype and each planning decision. These results confirm the existence of different mechanisms underlying the activity-travel decision process when activity types and subtypes are considered. Important conclusions related to the improvement of microsimulation models are highlighted.Ruiz Sánchez, T.; Roorda, MJ. (2011). Assessing planning decisions by activity type during the scheduling process. Transportmetrica. 7(6):417-442. doi:10.1080/18128602.2010.520276S4174427

Finite quantum tomography via semidefinite programming

Using the the convex semidefinite programming method and superoperator formalism we obtain the finite quantum tomography of some mixed quantum states such as: qudit tomography, N-qubit tomography, phase tomography and coherent spin state tomography, where that obtained results are in agreement with those of References \cite{schack,Pegg,Barnett,Buzek,Weigert}.Comment: 25 page