Resources: Review - An alternative look at policy and socialinclusion

I should know. I wrote the opening chapter of Youth Policy and Social Inclusion and it is already out of date. No mention of the youth green paper or the skills white paper, and nothing about the imminent demise of the Wales Youth Agency.

Nevertheless, there are two things that will help this book stand the test of time. First, there is Monica Barry's pedigree in writing about social exclusion and inclusion from a rights-based perspective. Rather than pathologising and demonising "socially excluded" young people, she has encouraged the contributors to consider, from their expert perspectives, the extent to which main-stream society has denied different groups of young people access to status, rights and responsibilities. Second, each chapter is supplemented by contributions from young people, who have commented critically on that chapter, described their own experiences and drawn their own conclusions for policy and practice.