Youth work in a marginalized area and its contribution to social mobility and social justice: Paper presented at the 44th NERA Congress in Helsinki, Finland, 9-11 March 2016

This paper addresses the question of how professionals involved in social pedagogical work in a marginalized area deal with young people’s possibilities of social mobility. Based on interviews with teachers, social pedagogues, pedagogical assistants, educational supervisors, street workers and municipal employees and observations in youth clubs this paper carries out an analysis of the conditions for social pedagogical work in a socially deprived area in Copenhagen as experienced by these professionals. The paper puts special emphasis on the fact that the youth work takes place in an area that in itself poses a potential risk for the young people living there. One of the main conclusions is that the professionals do not include the specific terms and conditions that the marginalized residential area represents in their practice. The professionals’ good intentions and initiatives for youth mobility therefore results in a form of social reproduction.
The paper draws on data from an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Copenhagen in 2013-2015 as part of a larger research project: “Youth, Social Communities and Educational Challenges