Youthography

On Saturday I arrived to an open centre (a permanent staff member was picking up forgotten personal belongings) slightly concerned over how the doors were opened and why, but soon enough realized what was going on. Happy to see a good friend of mine whom recently gained employment with the service, I buzzed myself in and proceeded to show him the ropes, after a usual cheery reception. Many young people were gathering out front and waiting patiently for the centre to open – the first weekend of the end of year school holidays and many seemed vague or lost in their present selves. When asked ‘what’s going on? How are you guys? Any holiday plans? Etc. Most were reluctant to say more than a few simple one liners, the type of proscribed response so often heard but not really meant, such as – ‘nothin’ – or, ‘nope ‘- ‘don’t’ care’, ‘hanging about’ or, ‘not much aye’. Yet they were here and they did seem to have hopes on how their time would be spent. Or at least, if not hope, they have desires.

After setting the centre up for a day of drop in and providing quite detailed step-by-step instructions to the new recruit, we opened the doors and in came the waiting few. 3 young people went straight to the computers in the drop-in room and proceeded to get onto Facebook and Youtube – music and social media. It is very common that young people go straight online, straight to Facebook and check- in, so any friends online know they are at the centre. Internet access seems very important to many of the young people who enter the centre, mostly for use through Facebook and Youtube. I have observed many young people sharing favourite music videos, funny clips and gamer films that are hosted on Youtube and posted/playable on the Facebook interface. There are 2 computers in the Drop-In room and most young people visiting the centre want access to the Internet. At first thought one could imagine that this could become a massive problem in a youth centre – 2 computers and many young people all wanting a go at logging on, changing their Facebook status or playing aloud a favourite song via Youtube. One would think this is destined for trouble, arguments or the like, yet the unspoken system seems to work seamlessly; young people seem to self-regulate, making it is a rarity to see anyone not sharing the facilities or considering others that may be quietly waiting to get online.

Thursday the 22^nd December: the Christmas present making workshops started this week with wrapping paper printing and card making. Young people had access to a table packed with coloured cardboards, paper, a selection of Christmas images (not of the religious type, unless young people asked for such) along with scissors, glue, pens, pencils, glitter, stickers, stamps, paints and brushes. Myself and another artist/Youth worker demonstrated and helped the young people to create a card, present and wrapping paper for a friend or family member as a Christmas gift.

Tonight we continued the workshops and in the usual style of Thursday night a gig is hosted in the centre, two young bands played for a crowd of 70 young people. All the young people in the centre tonight were invited to share some pizzas with the staff to celebrate the holidays and the end of another year. There was a different crowd amongst the regulars this evening, many of the young people that I spoke with tonight had mentioned they had never been in the centre before; they came tonight for the first time to see one of the bands and support their friends. These young people were a pleasant, well dressed, well mannered and well groomed.

05/01/12

School holidays were very evident today, with at least 100 young people visiting the centre throughout the day, things felt very hectic, in a good way.

3pm the doors opened and many were waiting poised ready to charge through the door. With a few hellos I greeted the young people and proceeded to retrieve the frozen ice-lollies from the freezer and hand them out, it was a hot day. Most young people wanted one and many had favourite flavours and were not willing to try another. One young person who frequents the centre, while being asked if he would like an ice-lolly, projected his attitude through myself and across the room. With a slight smirk he answers my question, bellowing out his words and snatching for all the ice-lollies. He causes us (him and myself) to engage in a slight tug-of-war for a single moment before breaking free with a few assorted flavours. I proceed to ask him why he needs to be like this and if he can give a few of the lollies back to me to share out to the rest of the group. His voice is loud and he puffs his chest out, though I feel he is calm at heart I understand this as I pick out a playful motive through his body positioning, control, smirk and eye contact. Knowing this young person for sometime now and having a history of shared moments (like this one, but better) allows me to consider, what could have seemed at face value, purely an aggressive, contentious moment is actually a moment in which a young man finds himself a chance to ‘play’ with social interaction, construct his identity, practice manoeuvring in interactions and trying-on attitudes, ways of being, for size. Though his resistance is manageable within this young setting, the signals are not valued in accordance with the centres policies on expectations of use. Young people on one hand are generally encouraged to feel welcome in the centre with a sense of ownership and control, but, breaking loose of these motivations, taking ownership too far and being dominant, territorial or intimidating causes Youth Workers to re-engage with the young person and re-align their subjective social experiences and therefore powers.

Youth Workers can find themselves in a discretionary position allowing for what they consider to be the right strategy for the interaction or they can simply refer to the expectations of use and let the structure determine the outcome. Here the Youth Worker can re-position the interaction to distance the sort of ‘face’ value found in a Goffmanian performance, constructing a distance by the negotiation and implementation of an unquestionable discourse of social order.

(Re-) Producing the social order, through a negotiation of that order.

In the centre there are rules, young people need to manage the way they follow them in order to continue accessing the centre. These rules can be reduced to a thread of underlying motivations. These can be understood in one-way or another to include, support, access and well being in the most general sense and within the confines of the job itself. Essentially all young people 12-24 are welcome in the centre as long as they keep the peace. This includes the way they use the centre, treat each other and staff and what sort of centre they contribute to by the way they act inside it. In this case, for example, the playing of loud, rude or considered inappropriate (e.g. swearing) music is breaking the rules and not an excepted way of using the centre.

The Negotiated Order - Anselm Strauss defined as the social order in which individuals interact through constant negotiations playing and working patterns forming normativity. This next sentence came from a diary entry not too long ago whee I was describing the last day of the year and we all sort of knew it and mucked around. It is interesting because, in one sentence I write about the negotiation of the re-negotiated order.

Rules were broken, and then re-obeyed. Power was lost, or given up, and allowed to be played with, then, regrouped, directly and indirectly. The centre, the policies, the visual sign we can point at and say ‘look at the expectations of use’, it backs us up and pulls back the rank.

Whether young people mean an attitude or not is not too important, especially if you cannot truly tell to start with or you don’t believe it to be true. Essentially young people need to roll with life at the same time as trying it on for size, practicing the performance at the same time as making it real. Goffman, employing a dramaturgical method, refers to a ‘backstage’ preparation space for the ‘front stage’ of social interaction. Solidifying an understanding of the performance aspect of social interaction in connection with the need of a practice space, like that of an actor and a script. But where does one find access to this script? Who has the most access? Who finds it easiest to interpret, practice and perform?

Maybe the performance aspects are less distinct than the understanding through a dramaturgical lens establishes. Backstage and front stage merged into one big playing field. While you could find yourself, left with the hand you have been dealt. Or one could be an experienced player finding a sense of stability, a space within the structure of the game to move; interaction could become second nature, fluid or autonomous, or on the other hand seem contrived, forced and awkward. We all don’t interpret or act the performance the same, some people are less conscious, some take themselves in reflection and place there own limits on interaction, placing themselves in the centre of interpretations and feel not to comfortable reflexively. Emotions challenge and categorise positions in interactions. Managing ones emotions - self-management is essential in the reproduction of a sense of normativity.

  

Heaps of the interacting I have with young people involves them using comedy to show their acceptance, or happiness, sarcastic acts, read as deference. Sexual innuendos and play fighting, quick witty responses and playful accentuations make up language games. A verbal tug of war develops over the lips sending sounds out into the game of nonsense. Over time jokes are revisited, codes are deciphered and the nonsense evolves into a personalised tone of speak. Name calling, vicious, aggressive and violent phrasing, tones, and body language, set against a backdrop of history, conditioning and interpretation.