Regimes of youth participation? Comparative analysis of youth policies and participation across European cities

Pais, Alexandre, Walther, Andreas, Lüküslü, Demet and Loncle, Patricia (2021) Regimes of youth participation? Comparative analysis of youth policies and participation across European cities. Young: Nordic journal of youth research, 29 (2). pp. 191-209. ISSN 1103-3088

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Abstract

This paper problematizes the assumption that national policies have a direct impact on youth participation at local level and analyses the relationships between local forms of youth participation and local and national policies. Relying on data from a EU project, the paper focuses on formally institutionalised settings of youth participation and elaborates local constellations of youth participation in six European cities. These constellations may be referred to as regimes of youth participation as they reflect wider structures of power and knowledge that influence the way in which young people’s practices in public spaces and their claims of being part of society are recognised. However, the analysis reveals that rather deducing it from the model of welfare regimes, such a typology needs to be developed starting from the local level and should consider the ways in which different relationships between local youth policies and national welfare states affect youth participation.