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This book analyses the relationship between youth and participation, looking specifically at those repertories of involvement that are commonly clustered under the concept of "unconventional political participation". The author focuses on the connections between youth practices of participation and youth conditions in contemporary society. Drawing from the analysis of three ethnographic case studies conducted on experiences of youth participation in Italy and Sweden, the circumstances and the reasons leading young people to express their political ideas through forms of engagement located outside the realm of "formal politics" are explored. The book seeks to bring back the specificities of contemporary youth at the centre of the analysis of youth practices of participation, highlighting their often overlooked socio-historical and generational 'situatedness'. Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement will be of interest students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including youth studies, political science, and sociology

This book analyses the relationship between youth and participation, looking specifically at those repertories of involvement that are commonly clustered under the concept of "unconventional political participation". The author focuses on the connections between youth practices of participation and youth conditions in contemporary society. Drawing from the analysis of three ethnographic case studies conducted on experiences of youth participation in Italy and Sweden, the circumstances and the reasons leading young people to express their political ideas through forms of engagement located outside the realm of "formal politics" are explored. The book seeks to bring back the specificities of contemporary youth at the centre of the analysis of youth practices of participation, highlighting their often overlooked socio-historical and generational 'situatedness'. Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement will be of interest students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including youth studies, political science, and sociology

Discussing the results of a qualitative research conducted with Italian university students (19-27 years), the article analyses young people's time management strategies during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research highlights how the forced deceleration imposed by anti-Covid policies has rarely translated into a conscious "practice of the present" (Sloterdijk 2007). Rather, young people's experience of the time during the pandemic is marked by a strong projection towards the future – expressed through compulsive practices of programming, planning and accumulation of skills (Rosa 2013) – and regression in the past – noticeable in the return to childhood practices, interests, and behaviors. The article reflects on the potential consequences produced by the combination of these two apparently antithetical dynamics in terms of a "leap" of the biographical time of youth.

Emotional entanglements developing between researchers and participants are an unavoidable experience in qualitative research, whose methods largely rely on emotions, intimacy, and relationships. Despite urged to exercise reflexivity, researchers rarely have the opportunity to deconstruct the emotional aspects of their investigations, which are often perceived as problems rather than as resources. Drawing on feminist methodology, this article argues that emotional entanglements should be considered neither as methodological "troubles" that must be avoided at all costs nor as strategies to gain richer data, but as important ethical moments that can help researchers reconsider, re-adjust, and update the tools they employ to collect and disseminate data. Using "confessional tales" written during qualitative studies I have conducted with young people involved in a variety of subcultural practices, I explore strategies for dealing with emotional entanglements in a meaningful and ethical way. In so doing, this article aims to add to the literature on the tensions between formal ethics and ethics in the field.

This book analyses the relationship between youth and participation, looking specifically at those repertories of involvement that are commonly clustered under the concept of "unconventional political participation". The author focuses on the connections between youth practices of participation and youth conditions in contemporary society. Drawing from the analysis of three ethnographic case studies conducted on experiences of youth participation in Italy and Sweden, the circumstances and the reasons leading young people to express their political ideas through forms of engagement located outside the realm of "formal politics" are explored. The book seeks to bring back the specificities of contemporary youth at the centre of the analysis of youth practices of participation, highlighting their often overlooked socio-historical and generational 'situatedness'.

L'objectif de cette contribution est d'explorer les représentations et les pratiques de participation des jeunes en accordant une attention particulière aux influences des relations intergénérationnelles sur l'interprétation juvénile de la citoyenneté. Elle présente une étude qualitative menée auprès d'un échantillon représentatif de jeunes et d'un échantillon d'adultes significatifs à Bologne (Italie). Les résultats soulignent que les relations entre jeunes et adultes influencent la préférence des jeunes pour certaines formes de participation ainsi que le sens qu'ils attribuent à leur comportement participatif.

La tesi tematizza come proprio oggetto di indagine i percorsi di partecipazione politica e civica dei giovani nei contesti di transizione alla vita adulta, concentrandosi sull'influenza delle relazioni tra generazioni su tali espressioni di coinvolgimento. L'approfondimento empirico consiste in una ricerca qualitativa condotta presso il quartiere Navile di Bologna nel 2012. Basandosi sull'approccio metodologico della grounded theory, essa ha coinvolto un campione di giovani e un campione di adulti per loro significativi attraverso interviste semistrutturate. Dall'analisi emerge una rilevante disaffezione giovanile nei confronti della politica che, tuttavia, non traduce in un rifiuto del coinvolgimento, ma in una "partecipazione con riserva" espressa attraverso atteggiamenti tutt'altro che passivi nei confronti della politica formale - basati sulla logica della riforma, della resistenza o della ribellione - e mediante un forte investimento in attività partecipative non convenzionali (associazionismo e coinvolgimento). A fare da sfondo all'interesse partecipativo dei giovani si colloca una lettura negativa della propria condizione presente ed un conseguente conflitto intergenerazionale piuttosto manifesto, che si riflette sulle stesse modalità di attivazione. La politica, nelle sue espressioni più strettamente formali, viene interpretata come un 'territorio adulto', gestito secondo logiche che lasciano poco spazio ai giovani i quali, per tale ragione, scelgono di attivarsi secondo modalità alternative in cui il confronto con l'altro, quando presente, avviene prevalentemente tra pari o su basi avvertite come più paritarie. Il distanziamento dei giovani dalla politica formale riflette quindi una parallela presa di distanza dagli adulti, i quali risultano smarriti nello svolgimento delle loro funzioni di modello e di riconoscimento. La loro ambivalenza rispetto ai giovani - ossia il continuo oscillare tra il profondo pessimismo e il cieco ottimismo, tra la guida direttiva e la deresponsabilizzazione - si traduce in un riconoscimento parziale delle reali potenzialità ed esigenze dei giovani come cittadini ed adulti emergenti. ; The thesis investigates youth paths of political and civic participation in the context of transitions to adulthood and focuses on the influence intergenerational relationships has on youth engagement. The empirical study consists of a qualitative research conducted in Bologna in 2012. Based on a grounded theory methodological approach, it involved a sample of young people and a sample of 'significant adults' through semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows a relevant disaffection towards politics among the youth which, however, does not lead to political and civic disengagement, but to a "conditional participation" expressed through proactive attitudes towards formal politics - based on a reform, resistance or rebellion logic- and through a deep investment in non-conventional activities. A negative interpretation of their present condition and a consequent intergenerational conflict are placed on the background of this type of involvement. Politics, in its most strictly formal expressions, is seen as an 'adult area' managed according to a logic that leaves little room to young people, who consequently choose to participate through alternative ways of activation where adult presence and power are perceived as weaker. Therefore, the young demographics' departure from formal politics reflects a parallel distancing dynamic from adults, who appear unable to adequately perform their functions of model and recognition. Their ambivalence toward young people - that is, the constant fluctuation between pessimism and optimism, between oppressive guidance and lack of responsibility - results in a partial recognition of the real potential and needs of young people as citizens and emerging adults.

This module has been developed from the Partispace research on spaces and styles of youth participation, conducted in eight European cities between 2015 and 2018. The research was undertaken by a team led by Andreas Walther of Goethe University Frankfurt and funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme. The aim of the module is to use key findings from this ground-breaking project to support learning and development amongst youth workers and other practitioners working with young people, as well as students of youth policy and practice. In the research, we learned about the interaction between policy and practice at the local, national and European levels. We learned about the settings in which young people participate and the purposes of that participation. We learned about the kinds of young people who participate and the rich variety of ways in which they participate. We learned about how young people, and those working with them, understand participation, and how much that is different from the dominant 'official' understandings. Above all, we learned about young people's experiences of participation, and how those can be made better.

From mid-2015 to early 2016, more than a million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, after having crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Sweden quickly emerged as one of the main destinations they aspired to reach. During the so-called refugee crisis of 2015–2016, the city of Malmö became the management center for the reception of refugees. In this context, a series of interplays emerged between governmental institutions (GIs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and social movement organizations (SMOs) involved in helping the refugees. Looking at the refugee crisis in Malmö through the lens of an interactionist approach to contentious politics, this article analyzes the strategic interplay between SMOs, NGOs, and GIs in the different phases of the crisis, as well as scrutinizes the conditions that facilitated or hindered cooperation among the actors. Results show that the crisis initially strengthened the role of SMOs, but that in order to enter into lasting and established forms of cooperation with NGOs and institutionalized politics, SMOs had to meet three conditions: 1) have a clear organizational structure, 2) downplay their political ideology, and 3) assume a complementary position to the other actors involved. For most SMOs, this limited their maneuverability, leading them to adopt one of three possible strategies: adapting to the new conditions, challenging the rules and players of the arena, or exiting the arena altogether.

This article aims to enhance understanding of young women's experiences in political participation by examining their practices of 'informal leadership' within Italian and German radical grassroots organizations. It explores the biographical pathways that lead young women to assume leadership roles and highlights the often invisible practices of responsibility that challenge traditional power dynamics. Drawing on gender and feminist studies, the article reveals how gendered practices of responsibility emerge in the analysed participatory settings and how gender biases obscure the recognition of certain leadership practices. In so doing, the article also examines the broader implications for understanding youth participation. It argues that dominant discourses, which emphasize contemporary young people's disinterest in taking responsibility in civic and political spheres, overlook how and where young people assume responsibility outside formal political institutions and fail to consider the impact of various inequalities on young people's ability to take on responsibilities.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, young people had a peculiar position in Italian public and institutional discourses. On the one hand, their complex living conditions nourished preoccu-pations and calls for intervention to save an "endangered" social group. On the other hand, young people's behaviours were constantly placed under scrutiny as potentially dangerous for themselves and society. Through an analysis of public and institutional discourses on youth and youth policies elaborated during the pandemic, the article analyses the interplay of these competing narratives in political and policy choices during the Covid-19 emergency exploring how young people's (un)deservingness has been framed. In doing so, the article asks what understanding of youth sustains recent institutional choices in terms of resources distribution and what institutions have learnt on (and from) young people during the pandemic.

Existing understandings of youth participation often imply clear distinctions from non-participation and thus boundaries between "recognized" and "non-recognized" practices of engagement. This article aims at questioning these boundaries. It analyzes young people's practices in the public sphere that are characterized by both recognition as participation and misrecognition or stigmatization as deviant and it is suggested to conceptualize such practices as "liminal participation." The concept of liminality has been developed to describe transitory situations "in-between"—between defined and recognized status positions—and seems helpful for better understanding the blurring boundaries of youth participation. Drawing on qualitative case studies conducted within a European research project, the analysis focuses on how young people whose practices evolve at the margins of the respective societies position themselves with regard to the challenges of liminality and on the potential of this for democratic innovation and change.

Drawing from the findings of the European project 'Partispace', this chapter analyses three solidarity initiatives promoted by youth leftist groups in Bologna (Italy). Materials were collected through an ethnographic study that included in-depth interviews with young activists. This material highlights the connections between the initiatives of these groups, their objectives and practices, in the context of the global financial crisis as experienced in Italy. The analysis shows that these initiatives, while seeking to mitigate the problems faced by vulnerable groups (i.e. migrants, refugees, and the homeless), were also fuelled by practices of self-help aimed at responding to the unheeded 'generational needs' of the young people themselves. The projects emerge as 'laboratories of political resistance' where strategies for collective action based on mutual help and self-empowerment are experimented with and enacted.