M. Joan Tash – författare

First published in 1998. This is Volume XI of the twelve in the Sociology of Youth and Adolescence series which outlines the problem, approach, and method around a the report of an enquiry into the ways and means of contacting and working with unattached young people in an inner London Borough. The importance of this book, is in the definition of unattachment, and in the perhaps unexpectedly wide range of implications for youth work and the Youth Service that might follow from it. Un attachment is defined as a conflict in expectations between those who offer the service (clubs, youth centres and others in the Youth Service) and those-the young people-who want and need it but who are unable or unwilling to accept it on the conditions on which it is offered. In describing the work that gave rise to this definition, the authors help us to see that the conflict in expectations has its roots in a much wider context than we had been able to see before.

These ground-breaking works led the way to an authoritative understanding of how social interaction moulded young people. Careful observation of vulnerable and troubled children helped the leading sociologists, whose works are included here, to investigate how aggression, discipline, the struggle for recognition and the need to rebel shaped the personalities of the young. These are important texts for practitioners, students and teachers in health and social welfare.