ESRC Society Today

Embargoed until 00:01hrs Friday 16th March 2007

Young people often get bad press with newspapers focussing on stories of ASBOs, gun crime and binge drinking. But is this portrayal of Britain's youth today fair?

This is the subject that will be hotly debated by young people from Brighton and Hove on Friday 16th March at Hove Town Hall. Organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the nationwide Festival of Social Science, the event aims to engage teenagers, with the issues surrounding being a young person in Britain today. The interactive debate will allow young people from local schools to put their views on whether representations are accurate or whether they are portraying a more divisive and harmful picture of growing up in 21st Century.

Speakers at the event include:

• Dan Glass, President, Sussex University Students Union
• Professor James Fairhead, Head of Anthropology, University of Sussex
• Professor Jean Hine, Reader in Criminology, De Montfort University
• Emma Fincham, Central Area Manager, Youth and Connexions Service, Children and Young People’s Trust, Brighton and Hove City Council
• Chief Constable Terry Grange, lead spokesperson on Children and Young Persons for the Association of Chief Police Officers 

By engaging young people with issues directly affecting them this event also aims to raise awareness of the value of social science to helping us understand the changing world around us.

For further information, contact the ESRC Press Office:

• Alexandra Saxon (Tel: 01793 413032/07971027335, e-mail: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk)
• Annika Howard (Tel: 01793 413119, e-mail: annika.howard@esrc.ac.uk)       

Notes for editors

1. The Festival of Social Science is organised by the Economic and Social Research Council, and runs from March 9th to 18th, alongside National Science and Engineering Week. It celebrates some of the very best British social science research, as well as highlighting the ways in which social science makes a difference to everyday lives. Press releases detailing some of the varied events are available at www.esrcfestival.ac.uk or for more information please contact the ESRC Press Office on 01793 413032 or via e-mail: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk
2. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2006-07 is £169 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/.
3. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/.