THE next strand of MMU’s Humanities in Public festival will start this week, and will be challenging the “lazy stereotypes” held about today’s youth.
Speakers for “Contested Youth” including Camila Batmanghelidjh, Dave Haslam and Sylvia Lancaster will be addressing issues of anti-social behaviour, nightlife and bullying.
There will also be a literary festival, panel discussions and film screenings.
The event has been put together by the co-directors of MMU’s new Manchester Centre for Youth Studies, Dr Hannah Smithson, Professor Melanie Tebbutt and Dr Rob Drummond.
In 2009, UNICEF described the United Kingdom as the most “child-unfriendly” of 21 major industrialised nations, and London has been dubbed the “child poverty capital of Europe”.
Professor Tebbutt said: This series of talks is to designed highlight the importance of understanding the complex issues that face young people today as well as the the historical roots of cultural attitudes which frequently stigmatise the young.
“The United Kingdom has always had an uneasy relationship with young people and often neglects their needs. England has higher child poverty rates than other developed European countries and London has been dubbed ‘the child poverty capital of Europe’. Young people are frequently scapegoated for broader social problems in ‘leagues of shame’ which ignore their energy, creativity and potential.
The first event to take place will be a free public lecture by children’s advocate Camila Batmanghelidjh, CBE.
In “Flipping the coin: Whose anti-social behaviour requires sanctions? The young, or those who make decisions about their well-being?”, Camila will explore the psychosocial constructs that define our narratives in relation to the most vulnerable children and young people.
Camila has been given a host of awards for the work of her two charities, The Place 2 Be and Kids Company. These include a lifetime achievement award from the Centre of Social Justice and the Royal Society for Public Health Arts and Health Award.
The event will take place on Monday, November 17, at 5.30pm in Geoffrey Manton Lecture Theatre 4.
The next issue to be explored is youth culture. On Wednesday, November 19 there will be a screening of Forever Young, a documentary designed to bring together a multi-generational group of North West residents to talk about their experiences of being young throughout the past 80 years.
The event, at Central Library, will be followed by a public discussion led by DJ and youth culture expert Dave Haslam.
Dave will also be giving a public lecture in Geoffrey Manton lecture theatre 4 on Monday, November 24, where he will be discussing “our addiction to living for the weekend”.
The two final public talks in the strand will take place in December.
Professor Bill Ogersby, of London Metropolitan University, will discuss media representations of youth on Monday, December 1 at 5.30pm in Geoffrey Manton lecture theatre 4.
And on Wednesday, December 3, Sylvia Lancaster, mother of murdered teenager Sophie Lancaster, will talk about her daughter’s murder, the trial of her killers and the work of the foundation that was set up in Sophie’s name.
The SOPHIE Foundation stands for Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere, and was set up following the murder of Sophie in 2007 while she was dressed in goth clothes in a park near her home in Bacup.
For more details visit http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/hip/
