Abstract for presentation at Global Social Work 2004

In Aotearoa/New Zealand and in countries around the world there is debate about how to respond effectively to the factors that function to exclude young people from participation in mainstream activities and community life. The debates on marginalisation focus on exploring exclusion from a number of key domains (eg. school, work and community life). The paper draws on the findings of a long-term research project on young people aged between 13 and 15. The research explores their perspectives on what it is they believe contributes to the achievement of wellbeing. This paper focuses on a group of young women who view life from the margins and who are labeled by many (and indeed themselves) as ‘spectators’ on community life. Many have been excluded from the usual activities in which it is expected that young people will participate; for example, school, work and sporting and cultural activities, on a regular basis. These young women live in a community that has experienced the effects of economic restructuring and that has had to address issues of poverty and material impoverishment. Issues of culture have also been paramount as the local indigenous population attempts to find ways to encourage young people to find positive cultural role models that counterbalance the attraction of young people to inappropriate and harmful activities, such as gang life. The paper will present the key research findings that focus on how living on the margins is constructed by the young women and how these women negotiate their daily lives so as to procure resources but at the same time minimise harm and legal sanction. The paper interrogates the notion of the ‘spectator’ and participation and the costs associated with living both within and outside the mainstream. It explores ethical issues around engagement with marginalised populations and working in communities that have developed their own ways of maintaining resilience albeit often apart from the mainstream institutions and without full participation in ‘ordinary’ community networks. The paper presents a number of challenges for social workers who work with marginalised populations and ‘at-risk’ groups.