Youth and Violent Performativities

Dr Ben Lohmeyer is a youth sociologist and youth worker. He is an Adjunct Researcher at Flinders University and Head of Youth Work at Tabor. Ben’s research interests include youth, violence and youth work practice. Ben has worked in a range of youth work settings concerning issues of justice, violence and peacebuilding. He has published in international journals including the Journal of Youth Studies, Current Sociology and Qualitative Research. Ben holds a Ph.D. from Flinders University.

• 1.Introduction.- 2.Youth, violence and democracy.- 3.Governing youth, sanctioning violence.- 4.Seeking alternatives, subverting myths and stories of resistance.- 5.Working in the mess: Enacting hopeful complexity.- 6.‘Calling bullshit’ on hollowed-out values: Violating neoliberal youth services.- 7.Conclusion: Guidepost for liberating practice.

“This book provides an original and highly valuable addition to the field of youth studies. It offers researchers, educators, students and practitioners with new ways of understanding and engaging with young people’s involvement in violence. Lohmeyer is to be commended for shifting the debate on youth violence beyond dichotomous and individualistic explanations … . Through critical questioning and provocation, bought to life by the research participants, Lohmeyer expertly navigates the reader through this terrain.” (Juliet Watson, Journal of Applied Youth Studies, Vol. 5 (2), 2022)