Responsibility as weight and space: An aesthetic (re)theorising of responsibility and responsible leadership development for youth

Abstract

This article seeks to explore youth experiences of responsibility and responsible leadership in leadership development. Noting that youth leadership development programmes have been criticised for prioritising positional and adult-based theories of leadership, we engage directly with youth participants in a leadership development programme to explore their experiences of responsible leadership. Using discourse and aesthetic approaches, we identify two primary discourses of ‘weight’ and ‘space’, which in conjunction with Young’s social-connection model of responsibility, we draw on to conceptualise a youth-oriented form of responsible leadership. In doing so, we offer leadership development a nuanced theorisation of responsibility while also extending and adapting Young’s work to more action-oriented forms of responsible leadership. We conclude by proposing five practices of responsible leadership development that can be effectively incorporated into leadership development programmes to support youth in negotiating the weight and space of responsibility.