Re-discovering the local: exploring the role of local authorities in the promotion of youth civic and political engagement

At least since the ‘80, several studies have highlighted the alarming signs of political and civic disaffection and apathy growing among young people. Worsening the already complex life conditions of the European youth, the economic crisis has increased the dissent and distrust towards the political world of this group of the population, leading a vast majority of young people to political desertion both on a local and on a European level. The most recent literature in the field of youth involvement highlights that the civic and political attitudes of young people are bounded in the “micro-territories of the local”: their engagement ideas and practices are grounded within the spaces of neighborhood, city, province and region and shaped by the opportunity of engagement offered by these contexts. In this sense, local and regional Authorities can constitute an important link between young people and participation, turning on or supporting their desire for activation also at national and European levels. However also a strong relation seems to exists between the apparent lack of participation among young people on the one hand, and the prevalence of ideological and practical limitations of what is recognized and proposed as youth participation by local and regional institutions on the other. Starting from an analysis of different practices of youth activism promoted by local and regional authorities in different European countries, the article analyzes the positive and negative role played by these institutions within the contemporary scenario of youth participation.