Youth participation: strong discourses, weak policies – a general perspective

Regimes of Youth Participation? Comparative Analysis of Youth Policies and Participation across European Cities

“…Despite European institutions' efforts to influence member states to consolidate their youth policies and to develop youth participation, it seems that only very limited progress have been made (Brooks, 2009;Perovic, 2017;Șerban & Barber, 2018). In fact, political references to youth participation has been interpreted as the symptom of a structural youth policy deficit in which addressing young people as 'citizens in the making' (Hall et al, 1999) and inviting them to volunteer and engage in decisionmaking are interpreted as acts of securing legitimation and governance (Akiva et al, 2014;Flanagan et al, 2017;Kennelly, 2011;Loncle et al, 2012). However, there is little research on youth policies, especially in an international comparative perspective and with regard to youth participation (Brooks, 2009;Loncle, 2017;Nico & Taru, 2017;Planas et al, 2014).…”

“…Thus, it remains unclear if they share the same logic and institutional structures like monetary security schemes. In fact, typologies departing from the welfare regime model seem to be more applicable to the so-called 'hard' policies like education or labour market policies governed by standardized regulations and large budgets at the national level (Loncle et al, 2012). Also Salamon et al (1998) who have applied it to conceptualize the 'social origins' and developments of civil societies had to limit their analysis to the structural aspects of the non-profit sector.…”

“…Second, in most European countries, youth policies (like many other sectoral policies) tend to be framed by national legislations but implemented at the local level where socio-economic conditions, local traditions and actor networks may dilute or override national policy directions (Loncle et al, 2012). As youth policies are less regulated by law than other sectoral policies, they sometimes depend on the good will of public authorities or even individual policymakers.…”

“…When the European Union (EU) started promoting youth participation almost two decades ago, it addressed national governments as the main youth policy actors capable of facilitating young people's participation (EC, 2001). However, rather than strengthening youth participation, these efforts seem to have contributed to 'strong discourses', while respective policies have remained rather 'weak' (Loncle et al, 2012;Williamson, 2011). At the same time, international research is struggling with producing comparative knowledge of how youth policies address youth participation, especially as youth participation evolves mainly at the local level initiated by local authorities, youth work associations or youth-led groups.…”