Although the EERA conference flyer correctly stresses the positive aspects of urban living and specifically urban education, Network 5 recognizes that urban settings are also potentially problematic sites where young people can experience alienation and disaffection as well as running risks of various kinds. The traditional role of NFE has been to work with marginalized young people often with fragile personal and social identities who no longer have an easily sustainable narrative of transition into adult life, including ‘drop-outs from the formal educational system and the economically bereft. Some marginalized subcultures, particularly in areas defined by gender or ethnicity, are created by prejudice rather than missed opportunity and they also fit into the mission of non-formal education to help in the creation of a more responsible and equitable civil society.

There are several strands that are pressing NFE to develop an appropriate research agenda. The first is that the conditions of funding increasingly expect evidence of ‘impact’, although one has to be watchful of attempts to promote an economic model of impact within a positivist methodology. The second is the NFE ‘recognition’ debate, itself carrying a research agenda, recently addressed with limited success in TALE (Trainers for Active Learning in Europe) and a current major concern of the Youth Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The third following wind is renewed affirmation by policy makers of a symbiotic ‘research/policy/practice triangle’ and a related commitment to ‘evidence-based policy making’, although both can appear at times largely rhetorical commitments. At all events there is an implicit invitation to NFE to articulate its models of best practice. The final helpful shift is that the sector has legitimated models of evaluation research that are fieldwork-based, exploratory and issues-centered using a ‘responsive evaluation’ framework. A number of theoretically orientated case studies are emerging that explore the pedagogy of NFE in specific well-described contexts.

This round table is offered a selection of case studies in non-formal education dealing with young people marginalized, at risk, or needing support, presented by experts in the field from a variety of urban settings across Europe. The presentations are as follows:

•    Nerijus Kriavciunas: ‘principles into practice: non-formal education as pedagogical research’ (13 minutes)

•    Reflective and evaluative case studies in NFE interventions
(1)    Peter Hofmann: The case of TALE: training the trainers to design and implement initiatives and programs in the youth (10 minutes)
(2)    Tomasz Lubotzki: ‘Working with potentially marginalized or deviant football supporters in two big cities in Poland  (Legia Warsaw and Widzew Lodz) as part of the Youth in Action “Fans in their Cities” project’ (10 minutes)
(3)    Brief video interviews will be available from Diego Romero (theatre based work with young offenders in a Spanish prison) and Micah Grywnowics: (gender issue across Europe, particularly working with LBGTQ Organizations). (10 minutes)

•    Andreas Karsten: Berlin as a microcosm of the issues: youth subcultures, NFE pedagogical practice and the problems of external recognition. (13 minutes)

The timing will be strict to allow discussion, which will be facilitated by Professor David Jenkins.

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