Youth workers, the agents of solidarity

This paper compares interpersonal, collective and systemic solidarity, and analyses the conditions for creating each of them. It explores how youth work enables the building of solidarity in the youth sector, and how it can contribute to replicating such solidarity elsewhere.

Observing the actions of youth workers, the paper proposes the idea that youth workers gradually become agents of solidarity in society, embracing solidarity as part of their calling. Inspired by a real story of a young person looking for a job and a youth worker supporting him, the paper explores the relationship between social activism and solidarity on a community level. It analyses the meaning of solidarity as a social phenomenon and its influence on individual and group actions. It investigates whether solidarity is always built around shared concerns, and seeks to understand the potential and limitations of solidarity as a driver for social change.