Sociétés et jeunesses en difficulté. Revue pluridisciplinaire de recherche Revue pluridisciplinaire de recherche

N° 2- automne 2006

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Autonomy and participation in decisions by adolescents placed in care (France, Germany, Russia)

Hélène Join-Lambert Milova

This paper looks at the socio-educational practices in relations to adolescents placed in residential care in France, Germany and Russia. It especially analyses the conception of autonomy that underpins these practices that are defined, most of the time, in reference to an autonomisation objective. It also looks at the consequences on the participation of the youngsters in decisions that relate to them where the principle is recognised and guaranteed by the international convention on children's rights and national legislations in the three countries involved. Through this comparison, the concept of user’s participation, linked to the decision-making process and also to tasks of daily life, appears as an instrument that can be used to help adolescents to learn to be autonomous.
The practices studied are replaced in the institutional and legislative contexts that govern them. This comparison between the different levels in each minor protection system shows the similarities between the ways the users participate in the legal or administrative procedures that lead to their being placed in care and the method of participation for the minors placed in care within the receiving establishment. To occur in reality, the principle of user participation in decisions that concern them can not be limited just to receiving establishments but must also be extended to decision-making at all levels.

Key words : autonomy, socio-educational practices, users’ rights, participation, residential care

« Educational response » by the pjj services and changing the « habitus »

Romain Gény

The educational response of the services of Protection judiciaire de la jeunesse to the issue of delinquency can be analysed as an attempt to create a voluntaristic change in the « habitus » of the youth assigned to the institution. Changing the « habitus » in this context means a deep and lasting change in the conditions that structure the individual, e.g. practical and cognitive schemes that will guide their actions and thoughts. The change in this case is voluntaristic in the sense that the person who will experience it does not decide it : it is partly imposed from the exterior.
The youth placed in care are perceived as being profoundly marked, in their attitudes, by disorder. They find that a set of standards are imposed on them along with an obligation to work on their issues. This should be justified to their mind by the educational team, which meets some resistance. The prologue to the educational response therefore involves getting the youngster's confidence. The aim of this educational response is to produce rational and self-controlled behaviour in these young people. To achieve this aim, the educators in the educational care centre where the survey was conducted used daily practices that were based on individual reflexivity and the predictability of action. It involved getting the youngsters to master their acts by introspection and by explaining the reasons for their actions. Reflexivity, language and dialogue appear to be essential conditions for changing the « habitus ».

Key words : educational action, habitus, confidence, reflexivity, rationalisation, protection, residential care.

Educational care trials

Lionel Dany

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study conducted on youngsters taken into care under judicial youth protection. The study analysed 39 interviews that updated the different aspects of the life of the person in care. This was based on objective factors: the legal basis for the care order (civil or penal) and the methods of care (family, residential care or foster family) and also on an evaluation by the youngster of his condition of « being in care ». This evaluation conditions the nature of the relations with the educational institute and the length of care.

Key words : educational care, youth, experienced living, judicial youth protection.

Preparation to independent living and socio-professional inclusion of youth under State care : what ways ?

Martin Goyette

Youth who have lived in residential or foster care for a long period of time are confronted with many obstacles when entering adult life, particularly in regards to their professional and social integration. In order to redress this situation, different programs are put in place to help youth develop their autonomy or self sufficiency. Based on an exploratory research, this article suggests that the way the transition to adult life of youth having lived in a substitute environment has been conceptualized should be reconsidered in life skills and the independent living programs. It is therefore recommended to envision the youth as an interdependent subject of it's community by having the intervention programs aiming their social and professional integration focus on social relationships and social networks.

Keywords : transition to adulthood, emancipation, independent living, substitute environment, social and professional inclusion, youth protection.

The psychologist as listener for adolescent taggers

Marion Haza

Tagging and graffiti are adolescent behaviours related to the appropriation of the urban environment and these wall marking practices disturb society, from the politicians to the institutions responsible for youth. We met school and college students to question them about these practices. This enquiry has given us a better understanding of who the adolescent taggers are and what the tag means to them. Analysing their comments was highly enlightening on the coincidence of this social behaviour and the specificities of adolescence. Furthermore, some of the observations resulting from this analysis suggest that the clinical psychologist should listen to adolescents who write in the streets. They can use the obvious content of what is written on the wall to go further and start to work with adolescent taggers based on these mural markings and their explicit and most intimate significance to lead to elaboration and meta-reflection and participation in subjectivity.

Key words : tag, adolescents, psychic development, psychologist.

The feeling of injustice amongst young residents of a working class housing estate

 Eric Marlière

This paper helps us understand the views held by the youth of a working class housing estate in the Paris suburbs on our institutions and society. It is based on participative observations and the transcriptions of informal discussions between the youngsters in their residential area. These youngsters are not a homogenous group because of age differences, schooling and also cultural practices which colour their vision of our institutions and society. Students are mainly interested in the world of employment, which they consider discriminatory, delinquents feel that they are in conflict with the police and practicing Muslims dread the presence of intelligence services. However, despite different routes, these youngsters also share a common past based on migration, working class social origins and share the same residential space which, paradoxically, leads to a common perception where cynicism accompanies their views of the society in which they live.

Key words : yougsters, institution, experienced living, feeling of injustice, representation, working class housing estate

Pour citer cet article

, «Abstracts», Sociétés et jeunesses en difficulté, 2, http://sejed.revues.org/document272.html.