Youth transitions, international volunteering and religious transformations: the experiences of young evangelical Christians in Latin America

英国对青年和宗教的研究强调，“Y世代”的出现在很大程度上脱离了正式的宗教结构(Voas等人，2006年)。对格拉斯哥的年轻基督徒进行的研究表明，虔诚信仰的年轻人认为，他们积极参与信仰是他们理解自己在周围世界中所扮演角色的核心(Olson et al，2008)。与前几代人不同，这一代年轻人在新的地方和网络中找到了信仰的灵感，经常强调基督教音乐会、基于信仰的志愿者活动、宗教静修和其他非教会活动的重要性，以理解他们作为忠诚的年轻人在世界上的地位。简而言之，年轻人经常在成人教会结构之外发展他们的宗教认同和精神意义。这个项目旨在调查年轻人通过参与以信仰为基础的国际志愿计划而发生的宗教认同和精神理解发生了什么，特别关注拉丁美洲年轻的福音派基督教志愿者的经历。更具体地说，我们探讨了四个关键领域的主题和辩论：(1)青年过渡；(2)对宗教特性、经历和转变的理解；(3)全球公民身份；(4)国际发展和社会正义。该项目将从跨学科的角度(包括地理学、社会学和发展研究)借鉴和综合这些领域的辩论，并结合实践者的见解和关于通过以信仰为基础的组织的青年志愿服务目的和意图的辩论。研究包括对拉丁美洲青年志愿服务的基督教组织拉丁美洲联系的个案研究。拉丁美洲见证了一些第一批正式的福音派基督教志愿者方案，特别是秘鲁在最近几十年成为基督教志愿者活动的重要地点。20世纪70年代末，两个传教士社团在这里开创了年轻人的福音派志愿者计划，这两个社团于1991年合并，成立了拉丁语链接。拉丁美洲链接现在每年向拉丁美洲各地派遣14个以上的年轻人团队参加短期STEP计划(www.latinlink.org)。作为一个非宗派组织，拉丁链接吸引了来自英国圣公会、苏格兰国教、浸信会、长老会和其他非教派的年轻人，与拉丁美洲的福音派教会在一系列项目上合作。这项拟议的研究利用了一套创新的密集混合方法定性方法，包括访谈、小组讨论和日记。年轻人将在拉丁美洲参加基于信仰的国际志愿服务之前，在拉丁美洲组织的Inspire活动中接受个别采访。在现场期间，所有的年轻人将被要求记录他们的经历，特别是他们与他人的互动，他们对东道主社区的观察，以及关键时刻和冥想。回到英国后，所有年轻人将被联系进行电话采访，然后在拉丁语链接组织的汇报会议期间参加焦点小组讨论。对收集的数据的分析将以团队为重点，结果将通过国际会议小组和会议介绍、同行评议的期刊文章和为期两天的讲习班传播，讲习班最初一天以青年为重点活动，随后为从业人员和政策制定者进行一系列讨论和介绍。

Studies of youth and religion in the UK have emphasized the emergence of 'generation Y' as largely disaffiliated from formal religious structures (Voas et al 2006). Ongoing research with young Christians in Glasgow suggests that religiously-engaged youth envision their active participation in their faith as central to their understanding of their role in the world around them (Olson et al, 2008). Unlike previous generations, this generation of young people are finding inspiration for belief in new places and networks, often emphasizing the importance of Christian concerts, faith-based volunteering, religious retreats, and other 'non-Church' activities in their understandings of their place within the world as faithful young people. In short, young people are often developing their religious identities and spiritual meanings outside of 'adult' Church structures.This project aims to investigate what happens to the religious identities and spiritual understandings of young people through their participation in faith-based international volunteering projects, with a special focus upon the experiences of young evangelical Christian volunteers in Latin America. More specifically, we explore themes and debates in four key areas: (1) youth transitions; (2) understandings of religious identities, experiences and transformations; (3) global citizenship; and (4) international development and social justice. The project will draw upon and synthesise debates in these areas from an interdisciplinary perspective (including geography, sociology and development studies) as well as integrating practitioner insight and debates concerning the aims and intents of youth volunteering through faith-based organisations.The research includes a case study on Latin Link, a Christian organization which supports youth volunteering in Latin America. Latin America witnessed some of the first formal evangelical Christian volunteer programmes, and Peru in particular has become an important site of Christian volunteer activity in recent decades. Here young people's evangelical volunteer programmes were pioneered in the late 1970s by two missionary societies which merged in 1991 to form Latin Link. Latin Link now sends more than fourteen teams of young people a year on short term STEP programs across Latin America (www.latinlink.org). As a non-denominational organisation Latin Link draws in young people from a variety of UK churches including Anglicans, Church of Scotland, Baptists, Presbyterians and other non conformist denominations to work with Latin American evangelical churches on a range of projects. The proposed research utilises an innovative set of intensive mixed-method qualitative approaches including interviews, group discussions and diaries. Young people will be individually interviewed at an Inspire event organised by Latin Link before participating in faith-based international volunteering in Latin America. Whilst in the field, all young people will be asked to keep a diary of their experiences, focusing specifically upon their interactions with others, their observations of the host community, and key moments and meditations. Following return to the UK, all young people will be contacted for a telephone interview, and will then take part in focus group discussions during the de-briefing sessions organised by Latin Link. Analysis of the data collected will be team-focused, and findings will be disseminated through an international conference panel and conference presentations, peer-reviewed journal articles and a two-day workshop involving an initial day of youth-focused activities followed by a series of discussions and presentations for practitioners and policy makers.