Accountability literacies and conflictual cooperation in community-based organisations for young people in Québec

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Canadian and Québec Governments have increased their involvement with community-based organisations partly because of their potential economic benefits for society and the State. Community-based organisations can find themselves in a situation of ‘conflictual cooperation’, where they receive funding from the State, but also maintain a critical stance towards it. The chapter draws on an ethnographic and participatory study conducted in two community-based organisations for young people in the Province of Québec, Canada. The aim is to understand how youth workers managed to navigate an accountability regime and its literacies. Resourcefulness, awareness, and creativity were identified as key elements to navigate accountability literacies in the two organisations. Youth workers were forced to engage with neoliberal practices, but also found ways of adapting them so that they would be meaningful to the young people with whom they were working.