Judith Bessant | RMIT University (original) (raw)
Papers by Judith Bessant
Making groups work: rethinking practice, 2020
Commonwealth Youth and Development, 2019
New and emerging technologies are challenging certain long-standing ideas about work, education, ... more New and emerging technologies are challenging certain long-standing ideas about work, education, play and even what it means to be human. The “digital revolution” is transforming not only unskilled work, it is now encroaching on many fields of professional practice and threatening the viability of traditional models of professionalism. Against a backdrop of considerable debate on youth work about the value of adopting the core elements of a profession, like a code of ethics or forming professional associations, youth workers now have the opportunity to think again about what it means to be a profession. This article suggests how the new and emerging technologies can play a major role in helping youth work develop new ways of being a profession while retaining its core commitment to enabling young people to flourish. This includes drawing on distributed innovation technologies to promote new decentralised forms of democratic, interactive and collaborative peer relations oriented to a...
Youth Studies Australia, Mar 1, 1996
The revival of economical liberal policy prescriptions has shown no respect for party policy trad... more The revival of economical liberal policy prescriptions has shown no respect for party policy traditions (Maddox 1989). In Victoria the Cain-Kirner Labor governments (1982-1992) initiated many of the innovations and reforms associated with a new model of public administration driven by early economic liberal prescriptions (Considine & Costar 1992, Alford & O'Neill 1994). This included the unsuccessful attempt to enforce amalgamations between local governments in 1985. The Labor Government continued. however, to ...
Child & Youth Services, Apr 3, 2014
In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxic... more In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxically, this takes place as the labour market is unable to meet demands for qualified practitioners. This article makes a case for further investment in university-based youth work education. While presenting labour demand and supply arguments, we also suggest that a good university education is important for producing graduates capable of becoming experts and good practitioners in the Aristotelian sense of the word. This entails the provision of learning opportunities to attain specialist knowledge, technical expertise and ethical capacities of the kind that distinguish youth work practice from other approaches to work with young people. Such an education also promotes the prospect that practitioners are able to develop a professional habitus that advances youth work as a discrete field of professional practice. While the material used in this article is Australian, we suggest there are sufficient commonalities between the Australian experience and many other countries for the arguments, findings and recommendations made here to have more general applicability.
Journal of Youth Studies, 2019
Against a backdrop of lively discussion about the best ways to do youth studies, or sociology of ... more Against a backdrop of lively discussion about the best ways to do youth studies, or sociology of youth, this article asks: Can Pierre Bourdieu's work be translated into youth studies in ways that benefit the field? We begin by considering Bourdieu's thoughts on the category of 'youth' using a new translation of this text, and then turn to an important discussion by Furlong, Woodman, and Wyn about certain long standing tensions in youth studies. These tensions are between writers engaging in the 'structure versus agency' debate that is mapped onto the 'culture versus transitions' binary. We consider the case for adopting a 'middleground' represented by Bourdieu's writings. We argue that many in youth studies work from an unacknowledged substantialist tradition, which is contra to Bourdieu's relational perspective. The result includes misunderstandings of Bourdieu's thinking and expectations of his work, for example, that it can pass certain empirical tests. We argue that if Bourdieu's relational perspective is to be translated into youth studies, we will need a more determined effort to understand that perspective first.
Policy Studies, Nov 13, 2015
ABSTRACT Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in parti... more ABSTRACT Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in particular, have been subject to sustained criticism for decades from dozens of official inquiries and reviews. It is now well established that many children in state care are treated significantly less well than required by relevant legal frameworks and community standards. Much attention and significant resources have been directed toward trying to ameliorate this ‘wicked problem’ and yet it continues. This article focuses on one reason the problems persists, namely the secrecy and closed cultures that characterize relevant organizations which reinforce strategies of denial that avoid acknowledging or dealing with ‘uncomfortable knowledge’. It is a situation many people in child protection systems confront. It is, for example, when we know abuse is taking place, or when they see or are ourselves party to corrupt or negligent practices. It is knowing that important ethical principles are being abrogated. We draw on recent official reports and inquiries noting the repeated calls for greater transparency and independent oversight. An argument is made for a default position of total transparency subject to caveats that protect privacy and any investigation underway. An account of what this can look like is offered.
The Great Transformation, 2018
Making-Up People: Youth, Truth and Politics, 2020
Making groups work: rethinking practice, 2020
Commonwealth Youth and Development, 2019
New and emerging technologies are challenging certain long-standing ideas about work, education, ... more New and emerging technologies are challenging certain long-standing ideas about work, education, play and even what it means to be human. The “digital revolution” is transforming not only unskilled work, it is now encroaching on many fields of professional practice and threatening the viability of traditional models of professionalism. Against a backdrop of considerable debate on youth work about the value of adopting the core elements of a profession, like a code of ethics or forming professional associations, youth workers now have the opportunity to think again about what it means to be a profession. This article suggests how the new and emerging technologies can play a major role in helping youth work develop new ways of being a profession while retaining its core commitment to enabling young people to flourish. This includes drawing on distributed innovation technologies to promote new decentralised forms of democratic, interactive and collaborative peer relations oriented to a...
Youth Studies Australia, Mar 1, 1996
The revival of economical liberal policy prescriptions has shown no respect for party policy trad... more The revival of economical liberal policy prescriptions has shown no respect for party policy traditions (Maddox 1989). In Victoria the Cain-Kirner Labor governments (1982-1992) initiated many of the innovations and reforms associated with a new model of public administration driven by early economic liberal prescriptions (Considine & Costar 1992, Alford & O'Neill 1994). This included the unsuccessful attempt to enforce amalgamations between local governments in 1985. The Labor Government continued. however, to ...
Child & Youth Services, Apr 3, 2014
In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxic... more In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxically, this takes place as the labour market is unable to meet demands for qualified practitioners. This article makes a case for further investment in university-based youth work education. While presenting labour demand and supply arguments, we also suggest that a good university education is important for producing graduates capable of becoming experts and good practitioners in the Aristotelian sense of the word. This entails the provision of learning opportunities to attain specialist knowledge, technical expertise and ethical capacities of the kind that distinguish youth work practice from other approaches to work with young people. Such an education also promotes the prospect that practitioners are able to develop a professional habitus that advances youth work as a discrete field of professional practice. While the material used in this article is Australian, we suggest there are sufficient commonalities between the Australian experience and many other countries for the arguments, findings and recommendations made here to have more general applicability.
Journal of Youth Studies, 2019
Against a backdrop of lively discussion about the best ways to do youth studies, or sociology of ... more Against a backdrop of lively discussion about the best ways to do youth studies, or sociology of youth, this article asks: Can Pierre Bourdieu's work be translated into youth studies in ways that benefit the field? We begin by considering Bourdieu's thoughts on the category of 'youth' using a new translation of this text, and then turn to an important discussion by Furlong, Woodman, and Wyn about certain long standing tensions in youth studies. These tensions are between writers engaging in the 'structure versus agency' debate that is mapped onto the 'culture versus transitions' binary. We consider the case for adopting a 'middleground' represented by Bourdieu's writings. We argue that many in youth studies work from an unacknowledged substantialist tradition, which is contra to Bourdieu's relational perspective. The result includes misunderstandings of Bourdieu's thinking and expectations of his work, for example, that it can pass certain empirical tests. We argue that if Bourdieu's relational perspective is to be translated into youth studies, we will need a more determined effort to understand that perspective first.
Policy Studies, Nov 13, 2015
ABSTRACT Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in parti... more ABSTRACT Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in particular, have been subject to sustained criticism for decades from dozens of official inquiries and reviews. It is now well established that many children in state care are treated significantly less well than required by relevant legal frameworks and community standards. Much attention and significant resources have been directed toward trying to ameliorate this ‘wicked problem’ and yet it continues. This article focuses on one reason the problems persists, namely the secrecy and closed cultures that characterize relevant organizations which reinforce strategies of denial that avoid acknowledging or dealing with ‘uncomfortable knowledge’. It is a situation many people in child protection systems confront. It is, for example, when we know abuse is taking place, or when they see or are ourselves party to corrupt or negligent practices. It is knowing that important ethical principles are being abrogated. We draw on recent official reports and inquiries noting the repeated calls for greater transparency and independent oversight. An argument is made for a default position of total transparency subject to caveats that protect privacy and any investigation underway. An account of what this can look like is offered.
The Great Transformation, 2018
Making-Up People: Youth, Truth and Politics, 2020
This challenging new book series explores the way governments and key institutions from across th... more This challenging new book series explores the way governments and key institutions from across the political spectrum have intensified their efforts to criminalize and regulate traditional and new forms of political dissent. The series features major contributions from the social sciences, law and legal studies, media studies, the arts and philosophy to document what happens when the state and other power elites regard the actions of political activists as illegal. This timely book series explores the legal, political and ethical implications when governments now routinely engage in electronic and digital surveillance, outlaw public assembly and freedom of movement in physical and virtual space and prosecute activists. The books in this series are a must read for anyone interested in the future of democracy. To propose a book for this series please email Judith.Bessant@rmit.edu.au For more information please visit www.routledge.com/books/series/CRIMPD
Key aspects of modern public service and community workplaces associated with significant levels ... more Key aspects of modern public service and community workplaces associated with significant levels of distress are identified. This includes the transformation of public sector and community agencies under the aegis of new public management (NPM). Using a child-protection case study, it's argued that NPM ethos generates stressful workplaces and 'uncomfortable knowledge' adding pressure to a system already in crisis. It's also argued that while there is value in self-care practices like debriefing, 'boundary maintenance' and 'work-life balance', one critical aspect of self-care associated with the virtue ethics tradition is missing. This gap in the literature and practice needs attention.
This article argues that the conventional conceptualization in political science of politics is p... more This article argues that the conventional conceptualization in political science of politics is problematic, that it is overly narrow and constrained. This is because it excludes a range of actions like satire and humour which have come to play an increasing role in inspiring and provoking powerful political emotions and in informing the political agenda.
Drawing on the work of critical scholars it is argued that emotion, ethics and art can be deeply political. Moreover, new forms of media have encouraged new-old forms of political action often at the hands of young people who hitherto have been marginalized from the public sphere. Digital technology enables the production of user-generated content, opening new spaces for information, the exchange of ideas and mobilization.
This article highlights the work of the young German satirist Jan Böhmermann to demonstrate how expressive art is playing a major role in shaping public opinion, in contesting power elites and informing political debate. In short, use Böhmermann’s 2015 satire depicting Greco-German relations in the midst of a financial crisis and fears of loan defaults to argue for a broader understanding of politics that is inclusive of activities conventionally deemed non rational.
This chapter offers a case study of Facu Diaz, a Spanish comedian engaging in political satire in... more This chapter offers a case study of Facu Diaz, a Spanish comedian engaging in political satire in 2014. The case addresses the problem when liberal constitutional states begin to criminalize political dissent. It suggests that those who argued that new media creates new opportunities for a ‘virtual public sphere’ and augments options for democratic deliberation need to consider two problems inherent in liberalism. It is argued that as a political theory liberalism is blind to non-traditional political expressions like satire, comedy and other artistic expressions. Moreover, the explosion of new security laws in many countries including Spain suggests, liberalism’s ostensible commitment to freedom needs to be reframed by its actual historical preoccupation with order and security. Those advocating for online dissent seeking legitimacy will need to look beyond conventional liberal accounts of politics in theory and practice.