Darren Sharpe: Who is in and who is out?

PARTICIPATION: WHO’s IN AND WHO’S OUT ? by Dr Darren SharpeTalk to SITRA, The Finnish Innovation Fund 16 January 2012

Aims of the lecture:• Who are in and who are out and how does this affect British society and democracy?• What kind of factors have the most effect on how British society works in the context of social exclusion and inclusion?• How I see the cohesion of the British society and its future?• My view of the recent riots in London• What I see has the most important things that should be improved in the British society from the perspectives of democracy, equality and participation?

Conceptual framework1. The idea of ‘citizenship’ is based on a Lockean idea of reciprocity of ‘rights and responsibilities’.2. Katz (2001) and Skelton (2010) idea of „unhiding‟ young people as citizens and „being political’.3. Wyness, M. (2006) sociology of childhood and ‘agency‟4. Thomson, R. (2002) idea of „critical moments’.5. Henn and Weinstein (2003) work on first time voters attitudes towards party politics in Britain.

Context and background:• Public cuts• Youth under or unemployment• Generational apartheid• Welfare reform• Toxic childhoods

Party Politics in Britain: First coalition since WWII Public Cuts • Youth Services (Informal Ed) •Connexions (Career Advice) • Social Housing Cap •Welfare Reform • Universal Child Benefit abolished •Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) scrapped •Raising Retirement age 66 2020 •Raising the school leaving age 18 by 2013

The state of the union

In terms of economic well- Divisions in Britainbeing, health, education Divisionsand employment Britishcitizens are, on average, • Rural/Urbanbetter off than they were •Gender inequality20 years ago. But •Ageinequality has persisted in •Classsome areas. •Disability •Ethnicity /‘Race’Britain in facts and figures •Education• 65 million population •Manufacturing /knowledge•1 in 5 children live in based economypoverty•11 million children andyoung people•40 per cent of thepopulation 0 – 29 years•Over 1 million youngpeople NEET 16-24yrs•1 in 4 young peopleinvolved in volunteeringwork

Snapshot on ethnicity and „Race‟•Almost half of all Bangladeshis and Pakistanis earn less than £7per hour. Bangladeshis and Pakistanis have both the lowest workrates and, once in work, the highest likelihood of low pay.•At both 11 and 16, deprived White British boys are more likely tofail to reach educational thresholds than either deprived WhiteBritish girls or deprived boys or girls from any other ethnic group.•Black Caribbean pupils are three times as likely to be excludedfrom school as White pupils.•Black young adults are four times as likely as white young adultsto be in prison.•A quarter of working-age Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and BlackAfrican households are workless

In and out of the Benefit trap• 8 semi-structured interviews with support workers (no=8)• 2 focus groups with service managers (no=19)• 3 focus groups with young people (no=34 NEET, parents, & disabled aged 17-24)• Thematic analysis

After the Wagon• Photo-elicitation• Qualitative interviews (no=20 Roma and Gypsy adults)• Thematic analysis

“Are they Bovvard?”• 65 semi-structured interviews (no=65 young people)• 10 semi-structured interviews (no=10 youth work practitioners)• Analytic Induction

Understanding the barriers and drivers to youth activism?• 1 focus group (no=16 NUS workers)• Systematic literature review

Returning to the aims of the talk:• Who are in and who are out and how does this affect the British society and democracy?• What kind of factors have the most effect on how the British society works in the context of social exclusion and inclusion?• How I see the cohesion of the British society and its future?• My view of the recent riots in London• What I see has the most important things that should be improved in the British society from the perspectives of democracy, equality and participation?

Darren Sharpe: Who is in and who is out?

by Sitran Elinvoima-foorumi on Jan 30, 2012

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Darren Sharpe: Who is in and who is out? — Presentation Transcript