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Activity Report on the paper sessions in Research Network ‘Youth & Generation’ held on ‘Rethinking Inequalities’ - the 7th international conference of European Sociological Association from the 9th to the 12th September 2005 in Torun, Poland.

1. Activities since the 6th conference

In the period since the previous conference in Murcia, the network has been steered by the Coordinator Jean Charles Lagree (CNRS, French National Center for Scientific Research) and a Steering Committee holding Sinikka Aapola (University of Helsinki), Airi-Alina Allaste (Talinn University), Gary Pollock (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Carsten Yndig­egn (University of Southern Denmark).

In the interim period between the 6th and the 7th ESA conference there has been no formal activity organised by the Steering Committee of the network. All activity has been either contribution to the discussion list run by the network (ESA-Youth list at Jiscmail) or informal activities between members of the network.

After the 6th ESA conference in Murcia, the Steering Committee drafted an evaluation, which was circulated the 30th October 2003 via the ‘ESA-Youth’ discussion lists (cf. Appendix 1). It created a handful of very usable inputs and has been part of the experience used in preparation of this year’s conference.

2. Preparation of the 7th conference

The preparation of the current conference began in summer and autumn 2004. The initial activity was a call for session proposals which was submitted at the 8th of October 2004. The call for sessions was distributed via three Jiscmail discussion lists (ESA-Youth, ESA-ALL, and European Sociologists) plus an address list containing researchers who had submitted abstracts to the network to the 6th ESA conference in Murcia.

The response rate was poor while only one proposal was received due the call. This call was implemented in the call for paper, which was made by the Steering Committee (cf. Appendix 1). It consisted of a list of 30 items by which researchers could classify their paper. This call was launched the 17th January 2005 and reminded the 18th February 2005. The deadline for submission was set to the 28th of February 2005. The call was supplied with a fill-in form (cf. Appendix 3)

The call resulted in 89 abstracts of which 11 have not been accepted. 6 abstracts were initially put on a waiting list because they were submitted very late. In the conference pre-phase the presenters were informed about session composition and were requested to inform about withdrawals as soon as possible. This was very successful while cancellations were carefully reported up until the beginning of the conference.

To secure a smooth accomplishment of the sessions, the Steering Committee had prepared some guidelines for presenters and chairs (cf. appendix 4). They were adapted from the guidelines used at BSA’s annual conference.

3. The paper sessions at the 7th conference and some evaluative thoughts

The network was impressed by the perfect venue that the local organisers had established for the conference. Their service-mindedness, friendliness and effectiveness in problem solving call for deep respect and thankfulness.

During the conference in Torun the Research Network ‘Youth & Generation’ organised 18 sessions with a total of 52 papers scheduled for presentation. Due to the careful removal of cancelled papers, all but a few presenters did show up at the sessions.

Unfortunately the printed conference booklet did not contain the final revision of the programme although it had been submitted in accordance with a request from the organisers. This caused confusion among presenters as well as casual visitors.

This issue of securing accordance between the announced programme and the actual occurrence in the sessions has been the largest problem in preparing the network’s activities. This is not a new issue (cf. Appendix 1), but it is crucial to improve in this field while it creates a lot of frustration when the printed programmes hold little validity.

Local organisers might consider changing some common strategies in preparing the conference material. For example could some of the booklets printed on white glossy paper be downgraded to A5 booklets easily produced on the high capacity copying facilities that are available on the universities today. It could also be worth considering prioritising the contact between local organisers and the Research Networks in planning the final programme.

In general, it could be considered to make more resources (not least abstracts) available in electronic form, securing lower costs, easy storage and possibilities for accessing conference materials after the conference.

The network’s sessions were organised in 18 sessions with all except the first and the last session running in 2 parallel streams. The submitted papers formed a limited numbers of topics. Therefore several subjects had to be divided into two sessions. The list of sessions contained the following subjects:

• Vulnerable youth
• Minority youth: diversity and disadvantage in Europe
• Transitions into adult life
• Gender/sex
• Political participation and movements
• Work life strategies
• Intergenerational issues
• Age
• Europe
• Local/global
• Internet, ICT and mass media
• Health behaviour
• Youth culture, values and the life course
• Social inequalities

The range of papers had a good quality. They were varied due to theoretical ambitions and empirical depth, which to some degree reflected the various traditions that meet within this cross-disciplinary field.

The tasks as chairs were distributed, so that no one chaired more that one session. This policy and maybe the careful implementation of guidelines for chairing seemed to have contributed to a successful performance with highly engaged chairs.

In planning the sessions, priority was given to securing both reasonable time for presentation and discussion. Presenters (helped by careful chairs) were disciplined and audience participatory. In this respect, the conference was highly successful.

To secure enough time for presentation and discussion, the programme operated with sessions with 4 – 5 paper in each session. Late cancellations after the structure of the programme had been decided and the final programme submitted to the organisers had the consequence that fewer papers were presented in each session than intended (3-4 instead of 4-5). This left the impression that the network’s sessions might have had too little focus.

It is always a critical decision whether to concentrate to secure focus and quality or to disperse to secure access for the many that profit from participation. This dilemma has to be critical discussed in the Board before the next conference, and ways of securing more weight in the sessions have to be considered without losing access and getting into the fallacy of superficiality.

4. Conclusions and recommendations

The conclusions that can be drawn from the organisation of this conference are:

1. It is crucial that there are established contact points between networks and local organisers
2. It is crucial that local organisers prepare a schedule for the different tasks that networks has to perform in the cooperation with the local organisers
3. It is important that deadlines concerning the preparation of the programme for the paper sessions are set as near as possibly to the beginning of the conference.
4. Alternatives to printing a programme booklet on glossy white paper might be considered to secure that the printed programme is as up-to-date as possible.
5. It might be considered whether it should be required that presenters send their papers well in advance, in order to present more papers and facilitate deeper discussions in the workgroup.
6. Consequentially, a web site need to be created at which the written papers will be accessible. Thereby participants will have the possibility to prepare for the sessions. This aims at improve the level of the discussion and to encourage more theoretical debates.

5. Organisation of the network

Jean Charles Lagree, who has been the Coordinator of the Network ‘Youth & Generation in Europe’ had chosen to step down at this conference. A business meeting held during the conference therefore had two major issues to address. First, a set of statutes for the network had to be agreed upon. Second, a new Board including a new Coordinator had to be elected.

The business meeting was announced in the communication with the presenters, and scheduled in the attached programme, and it was announced in a mailing distributed through the Jiscmail discussion list ‘ESA-Youth’ the 2nd September 2005. This mail also included the proposals for the new statutes. Unfortunately, the information about the business meeting was not implemented in the printed conference programme, although it entailed a section for this.

The Business Meeting agreed upon new statutes (cf. Appendix 6) and elected a now board. In the Statutes, the name of the network was shortened to ‘Youth & Generation’. A proposal of changing the name to reflect a broader affinity with youth sociology and youth research in general did not gain support. The minutes from the business meeting are attached as Appendix 7.

6. The Board for Research Network (2005-2007):

Coordinator

Carsten Yndigegn

University of Southern Denmark

Deputy Coordinator

Gary Pollock

Manchester Metropolitan University

Secretary

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu, Dr.

Istanbul Bilgi University

Britta Jonsson

Stockholm Institute of Education

Raili Nugin

Tallinn University

Vesa Puuronen

University of Joensuu

7. Future Plans

In the period unto the next ESA conference in Glasgow, the board will work on these issues:

• Arrangement of an intermediary conference in autumn 2006
• Coordinate and facilitate publication of research papers
• Strengthen coordination and communication within the network by the use of the network discussion list and the web
• Strengthen the networks geographical coverage in all part of Europe
• Establish contacts to the European Commission and other European institutions

Carsten Yndigegn

Coordinator of ESA RN Youth & Generation

APPENDIX 1: Evaluation of the paper sessions at the 6th ESA conference

Dear participants in the network 'Youth and Generation' at the 6th ESA conference

It has been a few weeks since our meeting in the ESA conference in Murcia. We are happy to report that there were more than seventy interesting papers and a lot of lively scientific debates on youth research throughout the week. There were, on average, four ­ five papers in each session in our research network, and 10­30 participants in the audience. Throughout the week, there were two parallel sessions. The joint sessions with the Biographical Research Network and the Ageing Network received wide popularity.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speakers and those in the audience for your valuable contribution in the conference. It is clear that this continues to be a lively field of research in European sociology, with a wide range of topics, methods and theoretical perspectives. There were many new people in our sessions, which is always positive, and many old friends as well, of which we are very grateful.

As mentioned in the sessions, an evaluation of this conference is needed, and it was promised that such would happen. This is the first contribution to such an evaluation, and an invitation to the participants to join the discussion.

This has been the first conference in the network where the planning and the implementation of the sessions hasn't been a one-man job. At the previous conference in Helsinki, Jean Charles Lagree invited some people to join in an informal board for the network; among them only Sinikka Aapola and Carsten Yndigegn were able to participate in the conference. A lot of effort has been put into the planning of the conference, but we regret to say that the implementation of the conference did not reflect the resources that actually have been used.

Our aim is to further the communication among researchers within the network. Although we had a lot of interesting presentations and stimulating discussions, we didn't manage to renew the traditional conference format. Additionally, we experienced some problems that made the network session a less positive experience as they were attended to be. We will try to analyse these problematic issues, first to learn from experience, and second to secure that the next conference will be more promising.

To list was we expect must have been annoying to the participants:

• The call for papers came very late. The time between the call and the deadline for submissions was too short.
• Responses (receipts of receiving the abstracts) were not given to the applicants. Some made special requests and got answers, but the main part first got information about the fate of their abstracts very short time before the registration deadline.
• There was too many presentations scheduled in the published programme. It was done because of expected cancellations, and they came, although to a varying degree in each session, but until we arrived at the conference site, we had no precise prior knowledge about who would be presenting and who not.
• Due to the many abstracts, it was necessary to schedule presentations both on Tuesday and Saturday. In the end these slots were no good. On Tuesday only two papers were given, and we expected it to be even worse on Saturday. We tried to move all of the presentations on Saturday, but missed the contact to one presenter, and to those who turned up Saturday to a 1­paper session, we can only apologize and promise this won't happen again.
• In many sessions, the size of the audience did not reflect that nearly a hundred youth researchers participated in this conference. This is the only point where we think the blame cannot be put upon the organizers, but we do have to reflect upon the fact that the eagerness to present isn't congruent with the interest in listening to others.

• Already in the beginning of next year, we must invite interested youth researchers to make short motivated proposals for session topics on the next conference.
• An edited call for paper has to be distributed in the beginning of autumn next year, with a deadline at the end of the year.
• We have to agree with the Polish organisers of the next conference that there is only one path open to submit abstracts to this network. In Murcia it seems that there were more than two roads open, and the liability of some of the abstracts submitted through the official web site turned out to be problematic.
• A session coordinator has to be appointed to each session, preferable the proposer, but other criteria could be used if this is not a possibility.
• The responsibility of the session coordinator will be to plan the session, communicate with the presenters to secure that they will come, so when the deadline for the official programme expires, there will be a reasonable guarantied programme.
• The responsibility of the session coordinator will also include the freedom to decide how sessions will be carried through. In case this involves pre­conference distribution of papers, considerations should be taken to secure that such distribution includes all participants in the network, not only the paper givers in the session.
• A business meeting should be held at the time scheduled in the official conference programme. Here the future of the network should be decided. Among this, deciding the rules of the play, maybe agreeing on a new name that both broaden the scope of and signifies that the subject is youth studies, and the election of an official board. Some initial work has to be done on this, because there is no formal membership of the network at the moment.
• We think we should omit the possibility of using the slots on Tuesday and Saturday for sessions, unless some session organizers insist in having these times. Experience has been that we cannot expect that people will be present before Wednesday, and that we can expect that they won't be present on Saturday. Having only three days makes it necessary to continue with parallel sessions. It is worth considering if the sessions could be scheduled due to preferences, so that sessions that attract the same audience won't overlap. Such interests were part of our considerations, but prior investigation could be done more properly next time.
• Having parallel sessions could leave the network pretty fragmentised. This could be an argument for that we once in the conference have a slot where there is only a single session. The slot just before the business meeting is a natural candidate for this. It has been proposed that we consider making this session a kind of semi­plenary with papers that due to their quality and theoretical innovativeness, or the celebrity of the presenters, could be expected to attract the interest of the whole network.
• This leaves the responsibility of the existing board just to manage and coordinate the process, and secure that all with delegated responsibility deliver their pieces to the puzzle.

Finally, let the discussion begin. Don't withhold any proposal or any kind of critique. Just keep in mind that the purpose is to further the cooperation for the sake of our network.

Sinikka Aapola · Jean Charles Lagree · Carsten Yndigegn

APPENDIX 2: Call for Papers - Youth & Generation ‘Rethinking Inequalities’, the 7th ESA Conference, 9 – 12 September 2005 in Torun, Poland

Dear Members of the ESA Research Network “Youth & Generation”.

It is time to prepare your contribution to the next bi-annual conference, which will this time take place in Torun in Poland from 9 – 12 September 2005.

The general theme for the 7th ESA conference will be “Rethinking inequalities”. It is most welcome that paper givers have this in mind when they are preparing their contributions. For more information about the ESA conference, visit: http://www.7thESAconference.umk.pl/index1.html.

We expect papers within a broad range of topics touching on the issues of youth and generation. The following list of themes is tentative and other relevant themes can also be suggested:

• Age, Biography and the Life-Course
• Ethnicity, Multiculturalism and Multi-ethnic society
• Gender Issues
• Generational Relations and Family Patterns
• Methodological Issues
• Minority Youth: Diversity and Disadvantage in Europe (description below *)
• Schooling, Education and Young People
• Social and Political Movements and Young People’s Participation
• Social Exclusion, Poverty, and Marginalisation
• Structure versus culture in youth research
• Theoretical and Methodological Questions in Youth Research
• Transitions from School to Work and Future Orientations
• Vulnerable and Threatened Youth
• Young People and Working Life, Labour market and Unemployment
• Young People, Alcohol and Drug Use
• Young People, Crime, Violence and Delinquency
• Young People, Embodiment and Sexuality
• Young People, Information Technology and Media
• Young People’s Identity Construction
• Young People’s Local and Spatial Identities
• Youth and Citizenship
• Youth and European Identity
• Youth and Transnational Migration
• Youth Cultures and Subcultures
• Youth in Transitional Societies
• Youth Values
• Youth Work and Youth Policy
• Youth, Consumerism and Life-Style
• Youth, Globalization and Risk Society
• Youth, Public Sphere and New Politics

When you fill in the abstract form, please indicate a suitable theme, if possible, preferably from the above list.

When evaluating the proposals, special consideration will be given to papers that bring innovative dimensions into the research field.

We can only accommodate a limited number of papers. There will be a maximum of 8 paper sessions, each of 2 hours duration. 4 (eventually 5) papers will be presented in each session to allow enough time for presentation. If interest reaches the same level as at previous conferences, we will try to establish two streams with parallel sessions. Be aware that the first session begins on September 9th, at 3-5 p.m., just before the opening plenary session. No sessions will take place after the final plenary!

A business meeting in which a new organisation of the network will be decided and a board will be elected, will take place on September 10th at 7.30 p.m. Venue will be announced later.

IMPORTANT: Abstracts should be submitted before the 28th of February 2005. As the deadline for submitting the final programme to the conference organisers is the 31st of March 2005, no proposals received after the end of February will be taken into consideration.

Please email a 200-word abstract in English to the entire steering committee. Make sure to include the proposed paper’s title, the author(s)’s name, institutional affiliation (both university and department), mailing address, email address, fax and phone number.

Decisions about whether the abstract has been accepted will be communicated no later than 31 March 2005.

This call is distributed through the ESA-ALL and the ESA-YOUTH mailing lists, and it has been sent to all who made submissions to the network’s sessions at the 6th conference in Murcia in 2003. You can expand the network. Please feel free to forward this mail and its attachment to your colleagues who might be interested.

PLEASE NOTE that according to the ESA guidelines for this conference, abstracts should not exceed 200 words and individuals should not deliver more than one paper at the ESA conference. Moreover, abstracts should only be sent to the below addresses and not to the Local Organization Committee in Torun.

Please fill-in and return the attached form no later than 28 February 2004 to the entire steering committee (use this link to launch your email client, or copy the whole range of addresses into the ‘to’ field:

Jean Charles Lagrée < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >;

Sinikka.Aapola < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >;

Airi-Alina Allaste < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >;

Gary Pollock < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >;

Carsten Yndigegn < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >;

Kind regards! We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts!

Jean Charles Lagrée • Sinikka Aapola • Airi-Alina Allaste • Gary Pollock • Carsten Yndigegn

*)

Our earlier call for session proposals did not succeed in bringing in a quantity of responses; the more we welcome the proposal from prof. Ravinder Barn and her colleagues:

Ravinder

Barn

Nadia Mantovani/Vicki Harman

Ravinder Barn, Nadia Mantovani and Vicki Harman (Royal Holloway, University of London)

(E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Minority Youth: Diversity and Disadvantage in Europe

As European societies become increasingly diverse, there is concern about the growing disadvantage and discrimination experienced by minority ethnic young people. Drawing on the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion, this session will explore a range of key areas including education, employment, juvenile justice, housing/homelessness, risky behaviour, racial/ethnic socialisation and family life, and identity constructions.

We invite contributors to reflect upon whether European countries are experiencing increasing racial / ethnic integration and to discuss the experiences of specific groups in multi-ethnic Europe. The range of papers in this session will allow us to consider the ways in which young people’s lived experience is shaped by factors including country of residence, ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic status. Contributors are also invited to consider what the contemporary experiences of minority ethnic young people suggest for the future of multiculturalism in Europe.

APPENDIX 4: Guidelines for Chairing a Session at the Youth and Generations Stream of the ESA, Torun 2005

A word of thanks firstly to all who have kindly agreed to chair a session at the forthcoming ESA conference, the Youth and Generations Steering Committee greatly appreciates your cooperation in helping to make the papers presented in this Research Network a rewarding experience for all concerned.

The following guidelines for chairing sessions are provided to ensure the smooth running of each session. They ensure that each speaker is given the appropriate amount of time and that the session does not extend beyond the time allocated. They also serve to standardise the structure of the Youth and Generations sessions and thereby create a sense of internal coherence.

Prior to Your Session

• Visit the location of your session prior to your session to review the workings of the lights, equipment, and good positions for your speakers in your session's room.
• Meet with all your speakers before the start of your session. At that time establish the running order of each paper remind them of the time limitations.
• Describe to your speakers the method you will use to notify them when they are nearing their presentation time limit and how you will interrupt them if they have reached the end of their allotted time. Try to leave time for questions/answers (especially if the talk is particularly inspiring or controversial), but if all time has expired for that speaker, it is acceptable to ask the audience to discuss issues with that speaker after the end of the session. It is up to you as the Session Chair to ensure that ALL speakers receive their allotted time and that the audience has opportunity for their questions and comments.
• It is desirable for there to be a minimum 5-minute question/answer/comment period at the end of each presentation.

When Your Session Begins

• Formally announce the beginning of the session. If needed, politely encourage the audience to settle into their seats and conclude their conversations.
• Introduce yourself as Session Chair and state your institutional affiliation.
• For each paper, introduce the speaker; give their institutional affiliation and the title of their talk. It is nice, but not obligatory, to give a brief introduction of the speaker - perhaps their background if you know something about it. You may wish to use the published abstract as a starting point for this "introduction" material but be brief as it is the speakers’ presentation after all...
• One or two minutes should be allocated for anticipated movement of people from session to session between papers in order to minimise the disruption to the speakers.

During Each Presentation

• It is up to you as the Session Chair to assist your speakers if there are problems. If the speaker's voice is fading, bring water. If the speaker's presentation is not displaying well, help adjust the equipment. If lights need to be dimmed, either do it yourself or ask someone else to do it. If the speaker cannot be heard or cannot be seen, you should politely try to correct the situation.
• You must keep track of elapsed time during a presentation. Most of the 2 hour sessions contain four papers hence each speaker has 30 minutes for both presentation and questions. Questions should only be allowed if time permits.
• Inform all speakers prior to the session that timings will be strictly adhered to and that if they want to have many questions that they should aim to finish their presentation 10 minutes before the end of their allotted time.
• At 15 and 20 minutes of a 25-minute presentation, give a *signal* to the speaker (for example the pages included below). Adjust timings as necessary for longer or shorter presentations.
• When a presentation is nearing its maximum time allocated *interrupt* the speaker (this could done by standing up, or actually stating "It is time to conclude").
• Question/Answer Period: If time permits, the Session Chair should invite questions if the speaker does not do this.
• An excellent Session Chair will have at least one general question ready for each speaker in order to help get the discussion off the ground, should the audience be shy.
• A really excellent Session Chair will actually ask each speaker for a potential "seed" question for you to ask should the opportunity be available!
• As the allotted time for the speaker's talk ends, initiate applause for the speaker.

At the End of the Session

When the last speaker's presentation and questions/answers have concluded, THANK the audience for attending and state that your session is now completed.

Cards:

10 more minutes

5 more minutes

1 Minute left

STOP!

Appendix 7 - ESA Youth and Generations Business Meeting, 10th September 2005, Torun

Present:

Jean-Charles Lagree

Carsten Yndigegn

Vesa Puuronen

Gary Pollock

Sinikka Aapola

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu

Charles Berg

Marianne Milmeister

Jean-Louis Meyer

Klaus Levinses

Raili Nugin

Britta Jonssonn

Jean-Charles addressed the meeting by summarising the development of this research network and its enduring success. He also emphasised the importance of the work of its members in international policy circles over the years and expressed a hope that this influence would continue in the future.

Sinikka then proposed an agenda for the meeting and was elected as chair to the proceedings with Gary to act as secretary. The agenda was accepted as a useful structure for the proceedings.

MAJOR ITEM: Implementation of Statutes for the Research Network. Sinikka read through a draft set of statutes many of which were standard and drawn from other ESA sources. The following issues were discussed:

1. PROPOSAL: It was suggested that the name of the RN might be usefully changed to simply ‘Youth’ instead of ‘Youth and Generations’. A debate showed there to be views in support and in opposition to this suggestion. A vote was held which showed overwhelming support for the name to remain unchanged. This proposal was therefore REJECTED.

2. PROPOSAL: It was suggested that the wording of Statute 6 be changed so that it read “..and two to four additional members.”. Hence the board could conceivably contain a maximum of seven members. A discussion showed there to be broad support for this proposal in that it could make the board more inclusive and representative. This proposal was therefore ACCEPTED.

There being no further discussion of the statutes, they were thus ACCEPTED and therefore represent the constitutional status of the RN.

1. Election of the RN Coordinator

Those present were called upon to propose people who could be elected to the post of RN coordinator. Carsten Yndigegn was the only name put forward and was, in due course, elected unopposed. It was therefore ACCEPTED that Carsten shall be the Youth and Generations RN coordinator for at least the next two years.

1. Election of other members of the RN Board.

A series of proposals from those present resulted in the following being elected to the board:

Gary Pollock (deputy coordinator)

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu (secretary)

Vesa Puuronen

Raili Nugin

Britta Jonssonn

All of the above shall be members of the Youth and Generations RN board for at least the next two years.

(The positions of deputy coordinator and secretary were determined at a board meeting on the 12th September.)

1. Email discussion list

It was agreed that Gary would continue to manage the email discussion list and would ask Jean-Charles to pass his responsibilities over to Carsten.

1. Mid-conference RN meeting

It was suggested that the RN should meet during 2006 and host a series of papers. ACTION: Carsten will explore this possibility.

Minutes taken by Gary Pollock