“He’s Shown Me the Road”? Youth Work and Young Masculinities

This chapter examines how a conceptualization of the psychic and social construction of masculinities can illuminate professional activity in the practice site of youth work. I argue that a psychosocial theoretical frame enables a critical engagement with a rhetorical trope that has persisted over time within youth work practice regimes, and that has emerged more forcefully in public and policy discourse recently: the older man acting as a role model, “mentor” and surrogate father for young men. I set out how meaningful and impactful practice demands a sensibility to both psychic and social forces within intersubjectivity and gender construction. Drawing on a case study drawn from the author’s own work in this field the chapter shows how psychosocial conceptual tools might feature within the professional development of male youth workers and thereby enhance research and practice.