Rethinking Youth Wellbeing

Rethinking Youth Wellbeing
Author: Katie Wright
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2014-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9812871888

This volume offers a critical rethinking of the construct of youth wellbeing, stepping back from taken-for-granted and psychologically inflected understandings. Wellbeing has become a catchphrase in educational, health and social care policies internationally, informing a range of school programs and social interventions and increasingly shaping everyday understandings of young people. Drawing on research by established and emerging scholars in Australia, Singapore and the UK, the book critically examines the myriad effects of dominant discourses of wellbeing on the one hand, and the social and cultural dimensions of wellbeing on the other. From diverse methodological and theoretical perspectives, it explores how notions of wellbeing have been mobilized across time and space, in and out of school contexts, and the different inflections and effects of wellbeing discourses are having in education, transnationally and comparatively. The book offers researchers as well as practitioners new perspectives on current approaches to student wellbeing in schools and novel ways of thinking about the wellbeing of young people beyond educational settings.

Everyday Embodiment

Everyday Embodiment
Author: Julia Coffey
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-05-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 303070159X

This book offers an innovative conceptual and methodological approach to one of the most significant health and wellbeing challenges for contemporary youth: body image. The social and cultural dimensions shaping body ideals and young people’s body image concerns have not been adequately explored in the current landscape of social media and youth body cultures. The author provides a sociological reframing of body image, foregrounding the social and cultural dimensions which are critical in shaping young people’s everyday bodily experiences. Chapters explore the significance of ‘gender’ and ‘wellbeing’ norms and the ways that circumstances of hardship and inequality are significant in mediating body concerns. In this, the book complicates simplistic understandings of body image, instead showing the complex processes by which body concerns are formed through the circumstances of embodied experience. The book advocates for the non-individual dimensions of body concerns—the social and cultural conditions of young people’s lives—to be foregrounded in strategies aimed at addressing this complex youth wellbeing issue. This text will be of interest to scholars in gender studies, youth studies, and feminist sociology.

Rethinking Youth

Rethinking Youth
Author: Rob White
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2020-08-05
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1000257746

Young people grow up in varied circumstances with different priorities and perspectives. While youth does not exist as a single group we need to understand what is happening in young people's lives. Rethinking Youth challenges the conventional wisdoms surrounding the position and opportunities of young people today and provides a systematic overview of the major perspectives in youth studies. The authors demonstrate how the concept of youth involves a tension between the social significance of age, which gives young people a common status, and the significance of social divisions. Drawing upon studies from different societies, they examine debates surrounding youth and economy, youth development, youth subcultures, youth transitions and youth marginalisation. Rethinking Youth offers a provocative critique of mainstream conceptions of youth, the programs and strategies designed for 'at risk' young people, and policy development in youth affairs. It calls for greater sensitivity to the complexities of youth, and greater emphasis on democracy and equality in dealing with the problems experienced by young people in a rapidly changing world. Johanna Wyn is Director of the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. Rob White lectures in Criminology at the University of Melbourne.

Young People, Wellbeing and Sustainable Arctic Communities

Young People, Wellbeing and Sustainable Arctic Communities
Author: Florian Stammler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-10-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000464709

Youth are usually not (yet) decision makers in politics or in business corporations, but the sustainability of Arctic settlements depends on whether or not youth envision such places as offering opportunities for a good future. This is the first multidisciplinary volume presenting original research on Arctic youth. This edited book presents the results of two research projects on youth wellbeing and senses of place in the Arctic region. The contributions are united by their focus on agency. Rather than seeing youth as vulnerable and possible victims of decisions by others, they illustrate the diverse avenues that youth pursue to achieve a good life in the Arctic. The contributions also show which social, economic, political and legal conditions provide the best frame for youth agency in Arctic settlements. Rather than portraying the Arctic as a resource frontier, a hotspot for climate change and a place where biodiversity and traditional Indigenous cultures are under threat, the book introduces the Arctic as a place for opportunities, the realization of life trajectories and young people’s images of home. Rooted in anthropology, the chapters also feature contributions from the fields of sociology, geography, sustainability science, legal studies and political science. This book is intended for an audience interested in anthropology, political science, Arctic urban studies, youth studies, Arctic social sciences and humanities in general. It would attract those working on Arctic sustainability, wellbeing in the Arctic, Arctic demography and overall wellbeing of youth.

Wellbeing and Schooling

Wellbeing and Schooling
Author: Ros McLellan
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2022-05-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030952053

Collectively, the research presented in this book revisits, challenges, and rearticulates taken-for-granted wellbeing conceptualisations, policies and intervention frameworks, as critical discussion of wellbeing in relation to children and young people from a variety of socio-cultural, political, and economic settings is still relatively sparse. The contributions work synergistically to generate a sophisticated understanding of children’s wellbeing while introducing fresh and context-sensitive approaches. Pre-conceived and taken-for-granted notions of wellbeing are problematised through four sections in (i) Re-examining conceptualisations of wellbeing in educational research and policy; (ii) Focusing on School environments, schooling, and wellbeing; (iii) Examining the significance of cultural contexts; and (iv) Amplifying children's voices. The objective is to help generate new ways of researching and thinking about wellbeing and schooling, that transcend monocultural, monodisciplinary and monomethodological strategies. The book aims to stimulate further theoretical and empirical research, as well as development of effective policies and school interventions which nuance rather than reduce complexity of both education and wellbeing.

School Spaces for Student Wellbeing and Learning

School Spaces for Student Wellbeing and Learning
Author: Hilary Hughes
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2019-02-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811360928

This book introduces a new wellbeing dimension to the theory and practice of learning space design for early childhood and school contexts. It highlights vital, yet generally overlooked relationships between the learning environment and student learning and wellbeing, and reveals the potential of participatory, values-based design approaches to create learning spaces that respond to contemporary learners’ needs. Focusing on three main themes it explores conceptual understandings of learning spaces and wellbeing; students’ lived experience and needs of learning spaces; and the development of a new theory and its practical application to the design of learning spaces that enhance student wellbeing. It examines these complex and interwoven topics through various theoretical lenses and provides an extensive, current literature review that connects learning environment design and learner wellbeing in a wide range of educational settings from early years to secondary school. Offering transferable approaches and a new theoretical model of wellbeing as flourishing to support the design of innovative learning environments, this book is of interest to researchers, tertiary educators and students in the education and design fields, as well as school administrators and facility managers, teachers, architects and designers.

Youth and Generation

Youth and Generation
Author: Dan Woodman
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2014-11-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1473911125

"Woodman and Wyn have produced a text that offers conceptual clarity and real depth on debates in youth studies. The authors skilfully guide us through the main sociological theories on young people and furnish us with sophisticated critiques from which to rethink youth and generation in the contemporary moment." - Professor Anoop Nayak, Newcastle University The promise of youth studies is not in simply showing that class, gender and race continue to influence life chances, but to show how they shape young lives today. Dan Woodman and Johanna Wyn argue that understanding new forms of inequality in a context of increasing social change is a central challenge for youth researchers. Youth and Generation sets an agenda for youth studies building on the concepts of ‘social generation’ and ‘individualisation’ to suggest a framework for thinking about change and inequality in young lives in the emerging Asian Century.

Youth Migration and the Politics of Wellbeing

Youth Migration and the Politics of Wellbeing
Author: Chase, Elaine
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-11-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1529209021

This book examines the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people as they transition to adulthood under the shadow of migration control. Drawing on unique longitudinal data, it illuminates how they conceptualize wellbeing for themselves and others in contexts of prolonged and politically induced uncertainty. The authors offer an in-depth analysis of the experiences of over one hundred unaccompanied young migrants, primarily from Afghanistan, Albania and Eritrea. They show the lengths these young people will go to in pursuit of safety, security and the futures they aspire to. Interdisciplinary in nature, the book champions a new political economy analysis of wellbeing in the context of migration and demonstrates the urgent need for policy reform.

Rethinking Attachment for Early Childhood Practice

Rethinking Attachment for Early Childhood Practice
Author: Sharne A Rolfe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2020-08-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000247198

Sharne Rolfe brings an excellent discussion of attachment principles, research and applications to an exceedingly important topic, the relationships between child care teachers/providers and young children. It is a important resource for the current and next generation of early childhood professionals and researchers, and it will be a key resource for the growing international discussion about child care teacher/provider and child relationships.' Helen H. Raikes, PhD, The Gallup Organization, and Society for Research in Child Development Consultant, Administration for Children and Families, USA a timely synthesis of current knowledge concerning attachment and its implications for contemporary practice.highly relevant for use in college and university early childhood programs and a valuable resource for directors and staff in children's services' Alan Hayes, Professor of Early Childhood Studies, Macquarie University particularly valuable in highlighting the crucial importance of taking a relationship-based approach when working with young children.' Pam Linke, Manager, Centre for Parenting, Child and Youth Health, South Australia This accessible and lively exploration of the importance of attachment for infants, young children and their parents, should be essential reading for all professional caregivers and for policy makers concerned with the mental health and well being of our future generation.' Ruth Schmidt Neven, Director, Centre for Child and Family Development In heated debates about whether childcare damages young children, attachment theory has been seen as anti-childcare'. Rolfe rethinks this perception, demonstrating instead that understanding attachment is essential to good childcare practice. Rethinking Attachment offers a thorough explanation of attachment theory and explains how security, autonomy and resilience in young children can be promoted in childcare settings through a sound understanding of attachment principles. With examples drawn from practice, Rolfe examines the relationships between children and their carers, between parents and carers, and between carers themselves. She also shows how secure attachment relationships with parents and carers influence transitions to childcare, preschool and school.

The Politics of Wellbeing

The Politics of Wellbeing
Author: Ian Bache
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2018-07-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319583948

This volume is the first collection in the field of wellbeing studies that places politics centre stage. Through a combination of intellectual inquiry, empirically-grounded research, and investigation across different settings, this book aims to provide fresh insights and develop new lenses through which to understand the rise and significance of the wellbeing agenda. Divided into three parts, it considers how to define wellbeing for public policy; the prospects for wellbeing as a force for political change; and the link between policy agendas and the everyday lives of people. The book explores the key political issues of power, democracy, and the legitimacy of wellbeing evidence in a range of settings – international, national and subnational/substate. The volume will appeal to wellbeing and politics scholars, as well as students and general readers with an interest in these new political agendas.