(Harris, 2012) and place (Cuervo and Miranda, 2019) interact with age in creating more or less ‘marginal youths’.
When studying youth and participation, the intergenerational dimension is central (Bates and Riseborough, 1993; Furlong, 2009; Woodman and Leccardi, 2015) and underlines the unequal distribution of resources between co-existing adult and youth generations. Indeed, studies indicate that in Western contexts young people born after 1980 might become the first generation who can expect to attain lower economic living standards than previous generations (Bessant et al, 2018). Thus, the intergenerational perspective recognises the systematic disparities in the distribution of economic resources and political power between generations (Pickard and Bessant, 2019).
While the distribution of material resources represents the most visible form of inequality, disparities also occur in relation to the different possibilities that individuals and groups have to participate – both to take part in and being part of their societies. From this perspective, inequality refers to a set of systematic disparities in an individual’s or group’s abilities: to receive recognition; to influence others’ behaviours in order to produce advantages for themselves and the groups they belong to; and to have control of the choices concerning their present and their future (Saraceno, 2006). Adopting this perspective of inequality facilitates consideration of both ‘traditional’ and ‘emerging’ disparities in young people’s participation.
The perduring effect that factors such as class, education and gender have in structuring young people’s possibilities of participation have been extensively demonstrated by literature. Young people with lower-class backgrounds systematically show lower levels of participation in both institutional and unconventional forms of participation (Marien et al, 2010) and experience difficulties in obtaining recognition based on their modes of expression (Pitti et al, 2020). This also seems to be the case for young people from ethnic minorities (Harris, 2008). Many of the chapters included in this book contribute to the analysis of these traditional effects of social inequalities on youth participation. However, attention is also given to less explored forms of inequalities in the participatory sphere. Literature has shown how spatial dimensions are relevant in shaping young people’s capabilities to participate (Holloway et al, 2018). Several studies have highlighted the different possibilities of engagement accessible to urban and rural young people (Farrugia, 2019), while temporal aspects are relevant in explaining young people’s involvement (Feixa et al, 2016), especially in relation to forms of engagement that require a relevant investment of time to be fulfilled (such as volunteering or activism) (Pitti, 2018). The book explores the relationships between participation and both traditional and emerging forms of inequality.
Participation can be a means through which young people seek to cope with the different forms of inequality they encounter in their lives (Loncle et al, 2012). However, some practices and logics of youth participation produce and reproduce forms of inequality that hinder young people’s full engagement and their rights to participate (Batsleer et al, 2020). The book provides a critical assessment of how specific ways of structuring and promoting youth participation can create ‘hierarchies of engagement’ and systematic forms of exclusion, and accentuate certain inequalities. It also examines participation’s possibilities for inclusion, innovation and change.
Outline of the book
This book arose out of network meetings in 2018 and 2019 with scholars across Europe and from different fields in the social sciences, who shared a strong interest in strengthening young people’s inclusion, recognition and participation on issues that matter to them. With evidenced examples and substantive research from these authors, the book challenges current policies and practices on young people’s participation and asks, as a result, how young people can be supported to take part in social change and decision making and what can be learnt from young people’s own initiatives.
The first part of the book contains three chapters written by and with young people who explore the experiences and the outcomes of their own participation. Chapter 2 is written by Alessio La Terra, a young activist involved in the leftist social movement organisation Làbas, based in Bologna. The chapter considers the story of Quaderni Urbani, a self-organised cultural project that, through art, is seeking to develop and share radical messages and political activism on migration, housing and other social issues. The chapter focuses on the practice of ‘cultural activism’ and discusses the opportunities and challenges of combining radical political activism and cultural engagement. Chapter 3 learns from experiences in Scotland, where young people involved with Young Edinburgh Action (YEA), the city of Edinburgh’s youth participation strategy, undertook participatory action projects and, subsequently, went on to co-produce a UK-wide network to improve young people’s mental health (TRIUMPH). The chapter is co-authored by Katherine Dempsie and Myada Eltiraifi, two young people involved in first YEA and then TRIUMPH, along with Christina McMellon, who supported their involvement throughout. Chapter 4 is written by Darpan Raj Gautam and Barwaqo Jama Hussein, who took part in a project entitled Part of the Community, organised by the NGO Action Aid Denmark. The project aimed to develop fora for young people in deprived neighbourhoods, so young people could share their experiences of inequality and, together, gain influence and democratic experiences. These three chapters provide insights into the forms of and motivations for young people’s engagement, as well as some of the difficulties these young people encountered in their participation journeys.
In Part II, four chapters revisit youth participation and inequality by investigating contemporary conditions and forms of youth participation. The section examines how young people’s participation has been affected and shaped by broader changes in the economy, technological innovation, regimes and policies. Chapter 5 develops a context-based definition of social participation, to then consider the diverse forms of participation and factors that influence young people’s agency and ability to engage. The authors find that experiencing inequalities seems to spur, rather than dissuade, young people’s engagement. Chapter 6 revisits young people’s political engagement, taking a historical perspective from the 1970s on youth rebellions and reflecting on surveys with young people via the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. Chapter 7 focuses on young people’s digital citizenship. Drawing on cross-European quantitative data and qualitative findings from Estonia, it explores how young people become informed, take a stand and take action through digital participation. The authors discuss how digital participation can also create inequalities of participation between groups of young people. Chapter 8 introduces the term ‘project regime’ to demonstrate how young people’s participation is often facilitated and organised as projects, and how the managerial orders and logics of projects profoundly affect the conditions for young people’s participation. Drawing on two case studies, the authors shows how the orders and logics of project organisation decide which, how and to what aims young people can participate in change and decision making within these project-based spaces for participation.
In Part III, chapters focus on how young
