3 Review(s)

The Arts and Youth at Risk: Global and Local Challenges is a contribution to the lively international dialogue about creative and arts-based interventions for young people categorized as "at risk". It contains chapters written by internationally recognized researchers and practitioners in arts education, youth arts and criminology. The instrumental benefit of arts participation for disadvantaged and marginalized young people is an area of increasing interest worldwide. This body of research highlights the positive educational and social outcomes of arts programs within and outside the schooling system. It also interrogates the ethics of arts interventions in a diverse and socially inequitable global context. The book questions the motivations of those working with "at risk" youth and challenges practitioners to ensure that their work with marginalised communities is efficacious as well as socially and politically responsible. Professor Shirley Brice Heath describes this book as "philosophically complex and pragmatically provocative". She commends the editors and authors for taking "the brave stance of interrogating the consequences, trajectories, and effects of participation in the arts by young people - especially those who carry labels such as at risk." She calls attention to the critical need as outlined in this volume to consider contextual background as well as an international perspective on children and youth when planning and delivering social and arts-based interventions.