ABSTRACT
The topic of preparing the next generation of professoriate is crucial for the fields of youth studies and youth work because the best or even the most likely ways of preparing the next generation of faculty is not self-evident. Youth studies and youth work, along with work with youth in the community, are all contested spaces, rife with territorial conflicts and challenges over credentialing and other zoning issues; the university and the community are sites of tension and outright conflict and there is tension too in their relationships. The subtitle of this chapter suggests what we will do here: map the contested spaces of these two fields—youth studies and youth work, make distinctions, present categories, themes and issues and frame questions—all as ways to open this important topic for continuing analysis, reflection and conversations about our two fields and their possible and likely futures.
