From DIY to teen pregnancy: new pathologies, melancholia and feminist practice in contemporary English youth work

In this article I consider past and current forms of feminist practice and 'girls work' and debates within contemporary English youth work. Drawing on previous scholarly work in Girlhood studies, youth work and youth policy, I explore the range of dominant discourses that have come to shape youth work practice within the current economic and policy climate. Taking two examples of present-day 'girls work', Feminist-webs and Girlguiding UK, I map the similarities and differences between these distinctive forms of practice, before considering the potential of feminist and queer pedagogies in reclaiming the potential for a liberatory praxis within twenty-first-century girls work.