The professional development of the network occurs through cooperative projects with actors from research and practice in the form of specialist events, network meetings, concept developments, evaluations, or research.

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The dialogue between research and practice within the network generates valuable insights for the IJA's fields of work and provides a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange between science and practice. Participants actively involved in the network derive added value for their own activities from this exchange. Two digital network events in spring and summer, as well as an analog project workshop in autumn, invite all individuals interested in the network to gather information, exchange ideas, articulate needs, and actively shape future processes.

Contact: Nina Festing

To meet the need for a scholarly exchange on international youth work, FPD organized a scientific conference in 2022 at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. The goal of the conference was to provide a professional platform for interdisciplinary discussions in international youth work and contribute to a more fundamental understanding of this field of work, discourse, and research. Central questions included exploring the aspects of international youth work from various perspectives, identifying the empirical subjects and theoretical assumptions involved, and understanding the specific disciplinary knowledge generated. The contributions from the conference will be published in 2023 as part of the series 'Traveling, Journeying, Meeting: Social Science Perspectives on Children and Adolescents on the Move – Camp and Mobility Studies' by Beltz Juventa.

Contact: Stefan Schäfer

Since 2019, students working on topics related to international youth mobility in their bachelor's or master's theses have been supported. The goal is to encourage more students to engage with the content of this field, provide them with an opportunity to participate in the FPD network, and support the next generation in the field of action and research in international youth work. This support includes mentoring for selected theses, active involvement in FPD events, as well as research dialogues and a network meeting. Further information on the funding, application, and selection process can be found here. Previously funded theses can be found here.

In recent years, a substantive-disciplinary discourse under the heading 'Systemic Effects of International Youth Work' has been continuously developed. In this process, several standalone expert opinions and analyses have emerged in the context of Germany. With the projects 'International Narratives' (2022) and, building upon it, 'IBI' (2023), structures and operational logics of international youth work in other countries are made visible in the discourse (expert interviews) with professionals from abroad, yielding valuable insights from an internationally comparative perspective. During a research workshop in autumn 2023, the insights from the past years will be consolidated, thoroughly examined, and next steps will be discussed.

Contact: Peter Menne

The panel study on international youth encounters and children's and youth camps now has a four-year history. The data analysis for the years 2021/2022 is currently underway and will soon be published here. The goal of the panel study is to provide a continuous database on international youth encounters and children's and youth camps. Within the framework of the panel study, FPD takes on the acquisition and continuous support of the panel's organizers. Would you like to participate in the panel study with your international youth encounters or children's and youth camps? For further questions, please contact Peter Menne. A registration form can be found here.

 Contact: Peter Menne