Empowerment, travail de jeunesse et quartiers populaires : vers un nouveau paradigme ?

Community development, empowerment and youth participation in social-housing neighbourhoods in France

“…However, in practice, these principles are not entirely followed and are sometimes transformed first in the style of assistance and teaching by the workers towards the residents and especially towards young people. Concerning the latter, according to Cortéséro (2014), what is observed in public structures like Community Centres is that work for youth aims to help young people achieve a social figure of the accomplished adult, defined by a set of psychosocial development standards. In France, policies for young people from low-income, social-housing neighbourhoods follow largely a logic of containment of 'dangerous classes' aimed at ensuring social peace through educational actions intended to make young people 'reasonable' (Dikeç, 2007;Cortéséro, 2010).…”

“…Animation, the professionalisation of which, in France, is largely linked to policies for the infrastructure and management of social housing banlieues (Bataille, 2004) is part of a larger plan to 'civilize the banlieue' (Cortéséro, 2014: 53). Young people who depart from these standards then embody a deficit figure, and the work in their direction must be corrective and compensatory: they must be helped to reach the 'dominant standard' (Cortéséro, 2014). This kind of education whose objective is actually to teach the formal exercise of citizenship to the youth is often experienced as an institutional violence and a denial of recognition.…”

“…In that case, it would be more valuable to integrate youth into existing participation platforms and spaces rather than creating separate 'youth' platforms through which institutions expect their engagement in policy. For that, instead of a paternal approach, some researchers propose the term 'user expertise' as young people could be experts of their own territory and neighbourhood (Talpin, 2010;Cortéséro, 2014). According to Coussé et al, the education-centred approach is actively refused by young people, as it tends to erase class conflict and relations of domination (Cano-Hila, 2017).…”

Politiser les jeunes du ghetto. L’ organizing de jeunesse entre empowerment et endoctrinement aux États-Unis

“…Les formations viennent dès lors compléter et renforcer ces savoirs et savoir-faire acquis dans l'action. On retrouve ici certaines tensions qui traversent l'éducation populaire et le travail de jeunesse depuis leurs débuts, relatives aux conditions sociales d'émancipation des groupes dominés (Cortéséro, 2014). Celle-ci doit-elle naître de l'action ou d'une transmission plus verticale de savoirs ?…”

Entretenir les possibles

“…Que cela soit, comme on l'a vu, avec l'omniprésence de la notion d'accompagnement ou via son actualisation dans les concepts de plus en plus répandus d'empowerment ou de pouvoir d'agir (Bacqué et Biewener, 2013;Cortéséro, 2014;Grenier et Simard, 2011) devenant des référentiels incontournables dans la pratique du travail social, l'autonomie forme la préoccupation principale organisant les interventions déployées dans les métiers relationnels. L'avènement de ce principe s'observe également au sein des soins psychiatriques non seulement avec l'accompagnement (Bonnet, 2021), mais aussi par l'intermédiaire d'autres concepts qui s'inscrivent dans son sillage comme celui de rétablissement.…”