Agency as an implicit concept in research on care leavers

Our presentation is based on two papers: the first is an in depth literature review on research in the field of transitions of young people from the care system to adulthood. The review is based on a search in the electronic... [ view full abstract ]

Our presentation is based on two papers: the first is an in depth literature review on research in the field of transitions of young people from the care system to adulthood.
The review is based on a search in the electronic social science databases “Eric” and “Scopus” and in three selected English, in two German and in two French journals for all articles published between 1st January 2000 and 28th September 2015. A total of 432 English articles were found and according to inclusion criteria a total of 129 articles were selected and included in the discussion of results (96 English, 3 German and 30 French)

Concepts such as experiences of young people, resilience, life skills, mental health, readiness and outcomes after leaving the care system were main foci.

The second is a theoretical paper where we worked on a concept of agency and how it is referred to in social work research. The main focus is the question, how an ecological understanding of agency based on the idea of actors being always in transaction with context can be grasped for an empirical perspective in transition research.

Bringing the insights of the two papers together our hypothesis is that in cases where agency is used as a reference in research on transitions it rather stays an implicit category that underlies concepts such as resilience or readiness then being developed as a distinct theoretical approach

We will discuss this hypothesis in depth by asking how the perspectives of the young people could be taken into consideration from a theoretical stance that focuses on the practices of the young people as transacting with contexts. We will ask how other theoretical concepts could benefit from such a perspective. Focusing on practices from a relational-transactional perspective allows us to analyse how contexts emerge while people are relating to people, ideas and places, and how contexts and agency are intertwined.
The presentation is meant as opening the discussion within the symposium and as setting a frame for discussing the contributions of the symposium related to structured questions.