Description
Everyday Violence in the Lives of Youth: Speaking Out and Pushing Back, is edited by Helene Berman, Catherine Richardson/Kinewesquao, Metis; Kate Elliott, a member of the Métis Nation of Greater Victoria; and Eugenia Canas. Though interpersonal violence is widely studied, much less has been done to understand structural violence, the often-invisible patterns of inequality that reproduce social relations of exclusion and marginalization through ideologies, policies, stigmas, and discourses attendant to gender, race, class, and other markers of social identity. Structural violence normalizes experiences like poverty, ableism, sexual harassment, racism, and colonialism, and erases their social and political origins. The legal structures that provide impunity for those who exploit youth are also part of structural violence’s machinery. Working with Indigenous, queer, immigrant and homeless youth across Canada, this five-year Youth-based Participatory Action Research project used art to explore the many ways that structural violence harms youth, destroying hope, optimism, a sense of belonging and a connection to civil society. However, recognizing that youth are not merely victims, Everyday Violence in the Life of Youth also examines the various ways youth respond to and resist this violence to preserve their dignity, well-being and inclusion in society. This book begins with a Land Acknowledgement. The chapters are as follows: Introduction: Re-thinking Violence, Re-thinking Health, and Re-thinking Research by Helene Berman, Catherine Richardson & Kate Elliott; Bringing to Life Youth-Centered Research: Our Experiences with YPAR and Arts-Based Approaches by Eugenia Canas, Helene Berman, Catherine Richardson and Abe Oudshoorn. Indigenous Youth and Uses of Art in the Fight for Justice, Equality and Culture in Canada by Kate Elliot, Cathy Richardson & Michelle Brake; Structural Violence in the Lives of Youth Experiencing Homelessness by Abe Oudshoorn and Jessica Justrabo; Trans Pirates for Justice: Gender and Sexual Minority Youth Resist Structural Violence in Systems of Care by Mina Harker, Alex Werier, Cathryn Rodrigues, Wilfreda E. Thurston and Rita Isabel Henderson. There is a chapter on Newcomer Youth Seeking Inclusion and Caring Responses after Arriving in Canada by Rita Isabel Henderson, Anshini Shah, Lynda Ashbourne, Rachel Ward, Alex Werier, Cathryn Rodrigues and Wilfreda E. Thurson. From Protection to Expulsion: A Critical Examination of Aging-out-of-Care Policy within Canadian Child Protection Services by Jennifer Fallis and Kendra Nixon. ‘Savages and Barbarians’: Representations of Indigenous and Muslim Youth in the Canadian Press by Yasmin Jiwani and Matthew Dessner. Can It Make a Difference? Evaluating YPAR as a Health Promotion Strategy by Holly Johnson and Alyssa Louw. The Emotional Exhaustion Created by Systemic Violence and How We Respond through Social Movement, Action and Zines by Jenna Rose Sands. The Conclusion: Speaking Truth to Power by Catherine Richardson and Helene Berman is followed by References and an Index.