Young Entrants in the Field of Youth Work: Changes in the Relationship to Work During the Professional Socialization Process
This article explores changes in the “relationship to work” (Paugam, 2000; Longo, 2011; Longo & Bourdon, 2016) among young entrants in the field of youth work across the stages of “professional socialization” (Hughes, 1996; Author 1, 2020) associated with the first years of practice. It explores the experiences of 17 young youth workers, based on comprehensive interviews conducted during ethnographic fieldwork carried out in nine youth services organizations based in the Toulouse region of France. A combination of thematic analysis and temporal bracketing supports cross-case analysis of the collected professional trajectory narratives, revealing a four-part typology of how young workers develop their relationship to work. The article identifies the three main factors at play as employment and working conditions, access to occupational training, and relationships with managers in the workplace.