Despite perceptions, young people active in public affairs

After taking part in a large-scale European project they have found that although some young people spurn conventional institutions, they are highly active in participating as citizens in a range of different ways through developing their own methods of campaigning on a wide range of issues, such as homelessness and refugee rights.

“We were looking beyond the customary focus on formalised, structured processes of political engagement and exploring how young people get involved in ways that are often off the radar,” said Professor Barry Percy-Smith, who is Director of the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research.

“We were challenging the assumptions that young people aren’t participating in democratic systems and we found evidence of the alternative ways that they are engaged,” he continued.

Professor Percy-Smith and his Huddersfield colleague Dr Gráinne McMahon, a Senior Research Fellow, have been members of a three-year, EU-funded project named PARTISPACE. Focussing on eight European cities, it set out to discover how and where young people participate, what styles of participation they develop and in what spaces it takes place.

Source: More young people active in public affairs despite negative perceptions