ENGAGING CRITICALLY : A SERIES OF SEMINARS
ETHICS IN YOUTH WORK : A RETREAT FROM POLITICS?
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 at UNITE THE UNION, VICTORIA STREET, BIRMINGHAM
FROM 11.00 A.M. to 3.30 P.M.
Talking about ethics is very much in fashion within the world of youth work. In the last few years three books have appeared exploring ethical issues and our relationships with each other and young people. As part of the move towards an Institute for Youth Work [IYW] there has been a significant debate about ethics. Indeed as a result the National Youth agency circulated in June a draft code of ethics for consultation. The intention is that would-be members of the IYW will sign up to the code as a condition of their membership.
Against this backcloth we wish to encourage a wide-ranging discussion about the place of ethics and politics in our work.
The opening half of the seminar will take a step back and interrogate the relationship between ethics and politics. To what extent can it be argued that the focus on ethics marks a retreat from politics? Doesn’t politics overarch ethics? If a political regime is unjust and unequal, what price our efforts to live good lives under its banner? If youth work itself becomes authoritarian and prescriptive in intent, what price our efforts to be ethical within its embrace?
The second half will seek to engage constructively and in good faith with the now confirmed IYW code of ethics. This document brings us back down to earth and challenges us to face what being a youth worker means in 2013.
Contributors to include:
Sarah Banks [Durham University and editor of ‘Ethical Issues in Youth Work’]
Maralyn Smith [ National Programme Manager-Workforce at the National Youth Agency]
Howard Sercombe [ University of Strathclyde and author of ‘Youth Work Ethics’]
Tony Taylor [In Defence of Youth Work]
As ever with IDYW the cost is kept low – Unwaged/Students £2, Waged £5. In doing so we are grateful to UNITE for their invaluable support in providing the venue.
To book a place at this hopefully challenging event contact Tony at tonymtaylor@gmail.com
Please circulate the flyer around your networks
Politics and Ethics flyer– Open Office
Politics and Ethics flyer – pdf
