Communicating wisdom: An arts and humanities-based study of fishing in youth work.

Fishing, or angling, has for a long time been recognised by many people as an activity in which more than fish is caught. Already in 1653, Izaac Walton published 'The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation. Since then, fishing and reflection, contemplation, awareness have gone hand in hand. From a symbolic perspective, fishing combines an element of purposeful activity related to hunting, with attitudes such as waiting and patience, which are more related to passive comportment. Fishing is an activity that requires as much activity as passivity. Activity means that there is an element of success and failure; passivity means that there is an element in which another experience of time can emerge than the one we usually have, when we go about our daily activities.

It has been acknowledged by many that fishing is a useful 'tool' in youth work. In this project we aim to investigate how fishing practices in youthwork, usually involving young people and older people, functions as a safe space in which people can communicate wisdom, can reflect on their attitudes, feelings and thoughts and can rediscover a sense of agency and creativity and even self-worth.

We will do this by employing a range of methods: we will investigate the symbolic meaning of fishing in cultural history; we will develop a concept of wisdom that is suitable for our fast-changing society in which intergenerational learning and communication is often problematical; we will rewrite the Compleat Angler, in the form of a multi-medial platform, for use by anyone who is interested in the more spiritual dimensions of fishing and we will carry out ethnographic research together with fishing communities, to gain a better understanding of the significance of people's experiences in this area.

(1) Research will establish a conception of wisdom that is relevant to community life and that is geared towards contemporary society. It will establish how practices that involve a space away from normal routines can function to communicate wisdom. The benefits of these practices for your work will become clear at an institutional and experiential level, adding to our existing knowledge about these practices.
(2) Young people using youth services will benefit from the increased awareness of and sensitivity towards the many ways in which fishing practices relate to well-being, to intergenerational communication and learning, to agency and to individual creativity.
(3) Those involved in developing youth work programmes will benefit from the availability of a platform for use by various constituencies that contains transferrable knowledge, experiences, reflective categories and creative expressions
(4) Communities can benefit from the deeper understanding of the significance of fishing, of wisdom, of intergenerational communication and of individual agency and creativity. Community cohesion can benefit from this knowledge, and its translation into practices.
(5) Policy makers will be able to use the findings in the planning of initiatives that are aimed at improving the lives of excluded young people. An adaption of the knowledge and insight gained beyond the practice of fishing, to include other, similar, practices is possible.
(6) The general public will benefit from this project by being able to enjoy a new version of the Compleat Angler, adding to our ability to mediate tradition and progress at the cultural level.