Self and Society in Youth Organizing

Abstract

This study uses portraiture methodology to reconsider the relationship between one Latina youth activist-researcher-educator and one after-school community based youth organizing program as one attempt to address the problem of educational access, civic engagement and democratic knowledge production for urban youth. The issue of self and society arose from the yearlong collection of data. The analysis examines the ways the individual and the youth organizing institution can be reconsidered from four different vantage points—one side, interaction, mutual constitution, and political positions—on self and society. By examining the relationship between self and a social institution researchers and practitioners can reconsider the issues of civic engagement, knowledge production and educational access and equity in youth organizing.