ABSTRACT
This book is highly personal. For those of us working and researching in the areas of social sciences, social work and social change, there is nearly always some autobiography in the themes in which we work. I have chosen the issue of young men and their vulnerabilities in part because of personal experiences in my own coming of age as a young man in the 1970s in George W.Bush’s Texas. These events shaped the way that I approach these issues, which has subsequently been influenced by life experiences in Latin America (where I currently live), and in other parts of the world. That said, it is appropriate to start this book with a personal story of manhood and violence (accordingly, this chapter will make extensive use of the first person).
