The Social Dimension of Finnish youth work History Juha Nieminen Malta 22.9.2016

Why history of social dimension? To understand the phenomenon To define the concept of ”social” in youth work To learn from the past To use concept relevant to the present To strenghten the all-round education and vocational culture of youth work

Conceptual problem 1: Youth work Youth work as an administrative concept (institutional implementation) Ghosts of anachronisms Youth work as a theoretical concept (research object)

Conceptual problem 2: Social Social as sociability Social as extrovertedness Social as interactivity Social as communality Social as societal

Conceptual problem 2: Social A lot of ”socials”: social status, social norm, social control, social problem, social question, social function, socialism, social democracy, social pedagogy, social education, social psychology, social policy, social work, social science, social capital, social media…

Excerpt 1 Society of the Estates and Class Society ”Social” in the life of the estates ”Social” structured by the class and gender Different ”social” in pietism, free-churchism, King’s regime, Tsar’s regime… Christian tradition of youth work - example YMCA: employment of boys National-idealistic tradition of youth work Political-coporative tradition of youth work - example: the status of young employee

Excerpt 2 First republic 1918-1939 Deepening social question after the civil war Child Welfare Act 1936 First co-operation body Nation-building, Finnish national values and culture

Excerpt 3 Wartime 1939-1944 Youth as compensatory labor force Voluntary work: ”Bee of the Youth” (Nuorten talkoot)

Excerpt 4 Period of Reconstruction Dominance of youth organisations 1950’s: youth unemployment Co-operation body of youth orgaisations - two committees of youth unemployment 1950’s Differentiation of youth issues and social issues

Excerpt 5 Welfare state The fastest changes of Finnish society The social power and social influence of baby boom generation

Conclusion 1 Loose, unfocused and untheoretical use of ”social” in youth work and in the historical research of youth work

employment of young people Conclusion 2 Eternal social issue in youth work: employment of young people