Funder:  Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Project team: Prof. Fred Powell (Principal Investigator), Dr. Martin Geoghegan, Dr. Margaret Scanlon (Research Officer), Ms. Katharina Swirak (Research Officer)

Duration: March 2008 - March 2011

The project’s three major aims are to:

(1)    document, analyse and theorise the development of social policy enacted specifically with young people in mind (‘youth policy’) from the formation of the Irish state to the present day;

(2)    analyse associational activity and active citizenship in civil society as it pertains to young people, and to develop an analysis of ‘youth work’ as an expression of that active citizenship;

(3)    develop a survey-based analysis of the contemporary provision of youth services for young people in Ireland;

Through identifying the changing meanings and practices relating to ‘youth’, ‘youth policy’ and ‘youth work’, the study will contribute to understand how social, cultural and political influences have shaped the development of youth policy and youth organisations in modern Ireland.  The study will produce publications which will be of interest to the voluntary and statutory youth sectors to reflect on their historical developments; the policy community, students of social policy as well as the general public.