The online lifeworld gives adolescents various opportunities to meet their developmental needs. Not all young people benefit from these opportunities. They encounter negative experiences, have difficulties fulfilling their needs and engage in risky and harmful behaviours in the online lifeworld. This poses challenges for Dutch youth work professionals, as little is known about the digital lives of Dutch adolescents and the challenges they encounter when meeting their developmental needs in the online lifeworld. In this qualitative study, a photovoice method was used to collect screenshots from adolescents (N = 175) concerning their experiences and needs in the online lifeworld. Six types of developmental needs in the online lifeworld were distinguished. The article concludes that understanding how adolescents use online affordances to fulfil their developmental needs is a starting point for all youth work professionals in providing adequate support to adolescents in the online lifeworld.
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The online environment, where the boundaries between the domains of home, school, work, and leisure are blurred, poses new challenges for youth work practice. Due to limited research on this subject matter, the theoretical underpinnings of the online youth work practice are constrained. The fulfilment of youth work’s aims online, the position it can take in the online context, and its relation to its partners in the online lifeworld need a theoretical base. This paper seeks to analyse the role of youth work in the online lifeworld according to adolescents and youth work’s partners. The research was conducted in the Netherlands in collaboration with 14 youth work organisations. A qualitative research design was used: group conversations with young people and semi-structured interviews with youth work’s partners (i.e., parents, schools, informal networks, neighbourhood support teams, police, and municipal officials). The findings indicate that youth work in the online lifeworld, according to the respondents, is part of the general youth work practice, with a primary role of addressing the developmental needs of young people and creating new developmental opportunities. This role is expected to be fulfilled by engaging and connecting with young people in the online lifeworld and providing them instrumental, informational, socioemotional, and cognitive support. To do so, according to the partners, youth workers can make use of their vantage position in the online relationship with adolescents in order to access online information relevant for support and prudent prevention aimed at adolescents’ development. This vantage position may potentially encourage a collaboration between young people and partners, and between the online and offline youth work practice.
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As youth workers increasingly offer support and guidance within digital environments, the question arises as to what impact this support has on the (online) lives of young people. This paper explores the contribution of youth work practice in the online lifeworld on young peoples’ development, building on previous studies concerning youth work outcomes and the developmental needs of young people. A qualitative research design was employed, including digital diaries of youth workers and semi-structured interviews with both young people (N = 37) and youth workers (N = 25). The findings highlight the role of youth work in helping young people navigate social media; develop new skills, talents, and social connections; and increase awareness of online risks. Youth workers also support young people in coping with negative online experiences, including loneliness and mental health challenges. The contribution of online youth work is less visible in certain aspects of developmental needs, namely online safety and privacy, self-image, and assessing online information. This paper concludes by emphasising the need for further research into the long-term impact of youth work in the online lifeworld, particularly in light of rapid technological developments, the growing influence of artificial intelligence, and the increasing involvement of youth in digital forms of crime. The findings described in this study can form a base for future research to better understand the impact of these emerging issues on youth development and youth work practice, as well as to develop appropriate interventions.
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With the increasing significance of the online lifeworld in the lives of adolescents, youth work must adapt its methods to support young people’s personal development and social participation in this hybrid online space. To date, there is limited knowledge on how youth workers can effectively employ methodical actions in the online environment. This paper draws on established offline youth work methods to explore their potential transferability to the online context. The research question guiding this study is: How can offline youth work methods be used in the online lifeworld to support adolescents’ developmental needs? Using the Change Laboratory method, 26 youth workers from 14 youth work organisations in the Netherlands participated in this research. The findings suggest that while offline methods provide a valuable resource, they cannot be directly transferred to the online context without adaptation. Instead, they offer a framework for seven specific methodical actions that can be adapted or developed for the online context. They are: 1) Increasing online visibility and accessibility, 2) Orienting, 3) Signalling, 4) Making contact, 5) Building meaningful relationships, 6) Assessing needs, and 7) Providing support. By identifying these seven methodical actions which are crucial for addressing the developmental needs of adolescents online, this paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge on youth work in the online lifeworld.
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The unexpected death of a child is one of the most challenging losses as it fractures survivors’ sense of parenthood and other layers of identity. Given that not all the bereaved parents who have need for support respond well to available treatments and that many have little access to further intervention or follow-up over time, online interventions featuring therapeutic writing and peer support have strong potential. In this article we explore how a group of bereaved mothers experienced the process of participating in an online course in therapeutic writing for the integration of grief. Our research questions were: How do parents who have lost a child experience being part of an online course in therapeutic writing? What are the perceived benefits and challenges of writing in processing their grief? We followed an existential phenomenological approach and analyzed fieldwork notes (n = 13), qualitative data from the application and assessment surveys (n = 35; n = 21), excerpts from the journals of some participants (n = 3), and email correspondence with some participants (n = 5). We categorized the results in three meaning units: (1) where does my story begin? The “both and” of their silent chaos; (2) standing on the middle line: a pregnancy that does not end; (3) closures and openings: “careful optimism” and the need for community support. Participants experienced writing as an opportunity for self-exploration regarding their identities and their emotional world, as well as a means to develop and strengthen a bond with their children. They also experienced a sense of belonging, validation, and acceptance in the online group in a way that helped them make sense of their suffering. Online writing courses could be of benefit for bereaved parents who are grieving the unexpected death of a child, but do not replace other interventions such as psychotherapy. In addition to trauma and attachment informed models of grief, identity informed models with a developmental focus might enhance the impact of both low-threshold community interventions and more intensive clinical ones. Further studies and theoretical development in the area are needed, addressing dialogical notions such as the multivoicedness of the self. Lehmann OV, Neimeyer RA, Thimm J, Hjeltnes A, Lengelle R and Kalstad TG (2022) Experiences of Norwegian Mothers Attending an Online Course of Therapeutic Writing Following the Unexpected Death of a Child. Front. Psychol. 12:809848. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.809848
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Background: Parents of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) have extensive care duties. This study describes the phenomenon “parenting a child with PIMD.” Method: We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Dutch parents. A reflective lifeworld research. Findings: The essential meaning of the phenomenon was understood as “continuously struggling to create and maintain new equilibriums that protect the child and the family from hardship; changing in context through time.” The following eight constituents were identified: (1) medical complexity; (2) multidimensional weariness; (3) care for siblings; (4) social connectedness; (5) uncertainty about the future; (6) wrecking bureaucracy; (7) dependency on healthcare delivery; and (8) financial concerns. Conclusions: Healthcare services should provide families with easy access to assistive technology and services needed to manage family life. Responsiveness to parents’ challenges offers them the possibility to participate in society. Healthcare professionals should address the parents’ perspectives related to the child’s quality of life.
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The aim of this article is to deconstruct the utopian character of Israel by analysing the case of Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem. In this illustration of how cultural heritage became dominated by Israel's utopia, this article proposes to create an inspirational alternative. Therefore, two tales of Bethlehem will be juxtaposed. Participatory observation and interviews were conducted in order to examine the context of Rachel's Tomb as well as the family of Claire Anastas. On this platform, different groups of people were invited to discuss complex political issues within the context of alternative tourism. By using Arendt's concept of the ‘agora’ and Habermas' theoretical framework, the lifeworld situation of the Palestinians has been addressed seriously. This creates the necessary condition in order to create hope in a highly politically unstable situation, such as the occupation and colonisation of the Palestinian territories. A critical value-laden perspective supports a stronger concept of communicative action in controversial areas. This concept functions as a structured approach to find an escape from the utopian supremacy of the Israeli ideology. It is an inclusive attempt to create room for a plural dialogue between all the lifeworlds of this region, Palestinians and Israelis.
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Insider ethnographic analysis is used to analyze change processes in an engineering department. Distributed leadership theory is used as conceptual framework.
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Background and purposeWithin Northwest European Welfare states, there is a growing need for all social work professions to substantiate their work with research. The earliest notions of social street work origins from the end of the18th century by the British Salavation Army (Mikkonen et al., 2007). In the Netherlands it’s introduced from the United States (1960s), as a response to individuals and groups hanging around. Social street work is a low threshold and professional form of being there, performed in surroundings and situations where the target group is. It focusses on contact-making and staying in contact with individuals and marginalised groups, who otherwise are hard to reach, have lost their connection with society and have multiple problems. It’s a high appreciated practice, but it lacks a method that is substantiated with research (Morse et all, 1996; Kirkpatrick, 2000). In this paper we will present conceptual model of the method of social street work, that’s substantiated with experiences from professionals and the target group.MethodThis paper is based on a combination of literature review, document analysis, Delphi Method and an online questionnaire among the target group. The research is conducted at Streetcornerwork in Amsterdam. Streetcornerwork is the only organization in the Netherlands that provides social street work, since WWII. They employ 175 professional social street workers and has 43 years of experience in social street work.First, a theoretical model of social street work is developed bases on literature review, analyses of documents of the establishment (1970-1990)of social street work (Netherlands) and different attempts to describe the method (1991-2017). Second, the explanation model is strengthened with data from the online questionnaire among 1600 clients of Streetcornerwork. Third, the Delphi Method is used to validate the model with the tacit knowledge of 24 professionals.ResultsThe result is a conceptual model of the method of social street work that is substantiated with experiences from professionals and the target group. Characteristic is that it’s an open approach in contact with the target group which is highly dependent on context and has unpredictable character (Metz, 2016 , Andersson, 2011).The method social street work consists of 14 methodic principles,. Social street work contributesto the development of self-insight and general life skills, the restoration of the social network and the improvement of living conditions and the well-being of the target group. We also gain insight in the experienced contribution of social street work from persons in the environment of the target group (client system, neighborhood and institutional environment). This experienced contribution of social street work at theenvironment is divided into the direct contribution and the implicated contribution through the target group.Conclusions and implicationsThis conceptual model of the method of social street work contributes to a body of knowledge. We made tacit knowledge explicit and we can legitimize the profession of social street work. Because research is done in close collaboration with street workers, it also contributes to the development of their work.
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from the article: "We present a case study as part of an investigation into the value of Embodied theory for the design of mixed physical digital interactive products. An interactive light system was designed that empowers an independent living person with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in managing domestic activities. Reflecting on the case we develop our vision of Embodied Functionality (EF). Designing for EF goes beyond ‘distributing’ information technology in the environment. It aims at creating interactive physical digital products that play a functional role (i.e. become part of) a person’s embodied being‐in‐the- world, involving a person’s identity. It does so by utilizing existing structure and by supporting action ‐perception couplings, reflection in- and on action and autonomy in social coordination. EF opens up an alternative design space holding the promise of a more successful appropriation of interactive (assistive) products into people’s everyday lives. "
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