Familiarity in action
(Dis)engaging institutional youth participation and transformative experience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6423482 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Georg Boldt (0000-0002-8009-1461, University of Helsinki, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1-19 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2325-4815 • E-ISSN: 2325-4823 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1162/ecps.a.14 |
| OpenAlex | W7105857461 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
Youth participation is a two-sided public policy issue. Besides lending legitimacy to decision-making, it is believed to enhance citizenship skills and strengthen democracy. Drawing on participant observation of a youth council in Finland, this paper critically examines these objectives by asking how council members coordinate their interactions to fulfil their institutional duties and how participation transforms their civic capacities. It critically interrogates the implicit definitions of ‘good citizenship’ embedded in the Youth Council by analysing how members become involved in the council and why they disengage from it. The findings offer empirically grounded insights into how participatory practices can, at times, transform participants from passive spectators into active citizens. The analysis highlights that engagement in the Youth Council hinged on the capacity of the representatives to adapt to a certain organisational style. Moreover, the study shows how different capacities and conflicting motivations among participants can cause participatory initiatives to perpetuate disenchantment with democracy instead of promoting it
Citizen journalism · Citizenship · Civic engagement · Democracy · Disenchantment · Legitimacy · Public engagement · Transformative learning · Youth participation · Children's Rights and Participation · Social Media and Politics · Youth Development and Social Support
Practicing Democracy
Youth activists, youth councils, and constrained democracy
Political Socialization and the Making of Citizens
Participation and Democratic Theory
Intersecting Voices
Deliberative Democracy and Effective Social Freedom
Power and Oppression from the Perspective of the Sociology of Engagements
Congregations in Conflict
The politics of belonging intersectional contestations
The politics of copresence
Another white elephant? Youth councils as democratic structures
Political socialization and influence at the mercy of politicians
The democratic common sense
Go to More Parties? Social Occasions as Home to Unexpected Turning Points in Life Trajectories
Identity Politics, Political Identities
Précis of Transformative Experience
The Christian Right
Group formation, styles, and grammars of commonality in local activism
Justifications Analysis
The Sociology of Critical Capacity
The Plurality of Cognitive Formats and Engagements
Religion in Public Action
Seeking Informed Consent
The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences
Civic Action
Culture in Interaction
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |