The Politics of Adolescence in Family Based Work
Content: This paper will explore the concept of ‘agency’ that people use to perform their identity projects (how people make sense of themselves) within the context of working in family reconciliation work.
This includes an understanding of the traditional and perhaps not so traditional discourses about parent blame, invitations to disconnect from our adolesent, gender relations and dominant psychoanalytical ideas that can enter and are spoken within the counselling ‘room’. In this context I will argue that an understanding of the politics of adolescence, parenting practices and the ways in which workers position themselves can open up or alternatively close down opportunities for developing conversations and understandings about sameness, diversity, inclusion and exclusion.
My interest here is not only with the ‘client’ but also on us as social workers. How do we inform and perform our commitments to social change and social justice in our work and in the practice wisdoms we draw on?
Drawing on the work of Michael White in Narrative Therapy and my own excursions into post structuralism I hope to question some our taken for granted assumptions focusing on this particular field of practice.
NOTE: This paper or a version thereof could fit in to any of the following groups.
Group 1 - Capacity Building
Group 4 - Citizen ship Rights
Group 5 - Ethical Practice
Group 6 - Sustainability
Group 11 - Women's Symposium