The European Commission’s White Paper on Youth in 2001 invites the Member States to ensure an effective planning and implementation of national youth policies. Since then, there has been an increased attention on youth in the national political agenda and many discourses regarding their social integration. Based on a comparative analysis of policies and discourses on youth and youth participation that we conducted in eight European countries (PARTISPACE Project, Horizon 2020), the aim of this article is to start a pedagogical reflection on youth participation and the way to promote it: both in term of young people’s engagement for individual identity building, self-realization and in term of community development. After presenting what images of youth are proposed in the national policies and discourses, which youth issues are prioritized and measures suggested to promote youth participation, we propose some reflections about the connection of pedagogy and policy and the way in which education could foster a real youth participatory attitude, especially for what concerns ‘disadvantaged’ young people .
Il Libro bianco della Commissione Europea del 2001 invitava gli stati membri ad assicurare un'efficace pianificazione e realizzazione delle politiche nazionali per i giovani. Da allora, si é manifestata una crescente attenzione ai giovani nelle agende politiche nazionali e molti discorsi sono emersi rispetto alla loro integrazione sociale. Sulla base di un'analisi comparativa delle politiche sui giovani e sulla partecipazione giovanile condotta in otto paesi europei (PARTISPACE Project, Horizon 2020), l'obiettivo di questo articolo é quello di iniziare una riflessione pedagogica sulla partecipazione giovanile e le modalità con cui promuoverla, sia in termini di impegno giovanile rivolto alla costruzione dell'identita, all'auto-realizzazione sie in termini di sviluppo comunitario. Dopo aver introdotto la rappresentazione dei giovani proposta nelle politiche nazionali e nei discorsi, quali questioni giovanili risultano prioritare e le misure suggerite per promuovere il loro impegno, proponiamo alcune riflession sulle connessioni esistenti tra pedagogia e politiche e sulle modalità con cui l'educazione può promuovere tra i giovani un'attitudine realmente partecipativa, soprattutto per quel che riguarda i giovni in situazione di svantaggio socio-culturale.
Youth participation in Europe: a pedagogical reflection at the crossroads between discourses and policies
Morena Cuconato
2018
Abstract
The European Commission’s White Paper on Youth in 2001 invites the Member States to ensure an effective planning and implementation of national youth policies. Since then, there has been an increased attention on youth in the national political agenda and many discourses regarding their social integration. Based on a comparative analysis of policies and discourses on youth and youth participation that we conducted in eight European countries (PARTISPACE Project, Horizon 2020), the aim of this article is to start a pedagogical reflection on youth participation and the way to promote it: both in term of young people’s engagement for individual identity building, self-realization and in term of community development. After presenting what images of youth are proposed in the national policies and discourses, which youth issues are prioritized and measures suggested to promote youth participation, we propose some reflections about the connection of pedagogy and policy and the way in which education could foster a real youth participatory attitude, especially for what concerns ‘disadvantaged’ young people .I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
