Samenvatting

The richness of the studies presented is disappearing under a thick sauce of left-wing ideology and perceptions of globalization, making it too easy for ‘the enemy’ to neglect this book. Quotes like ‘To put it crudely, market tyrannies and state despotism have deepened inequalities and abrogate freedom both within and among nations’, are not very helpful in starting a more open debate on the marginalization of young people in different cultures and countries. I think the studies themselves are very convincing and do not need too obvious links to globalizing evil. The research observations are in contrast with the rather blunt social political analyses. The position of social work, given its empowering tradition with regard to excluded
groups (such as many of the youth gangs and cultures in this publication), needs to be a self confident approach, focused on giving insight into and improving practices in the life world contexts of young people.