The debate on young people and participatory citizenship. Questions and research prospects

For quite some time, experts and policy makers in Western societies have been looking at young people with concern, extending their analysis from the potential for conflict and divergence, to socio-cultural dynamics and inter-generational relations. There is certainly intense debate as to how close or distant young people are to forms and content of citizenship as experienced in the creation of modern democracy. Such a debate, developed at both institutional and scientific level, focuses particularly on concepts of participation and active citizenship and identifies in the civic engagement and participatory citizenship of young people the key factors for the maintenance of democracy and social cohesion. By bringing to light the meanings, implications and ambivalences of the concepts at the center of the debate, also with a view to European policies, the article aims at highlighting rhetoric, voids and emerging contradictions and pointing out questions and possible research paths.