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Youth Political Participation: Is This the End of Generational Cleavage?

European University Institute, Florence, federico.rossi{at}eui.eu

Young people express an increasing rejection of institutional politics and its classic actors, which has led to the assertion that youth are apathetic. This article intends to show why this affirmation is partial and does not reflect the underlying complexity of what motivates political participation in young people. The hypothesis is that since young people interpret the youth condition as transitory, they do not consider youth political participation an end in itself. While the youth condition does not structure political participation or constitute actors and political projects, there are specificities of youth political participation that need to be identified. For the purpose of identifying what motivates youth to participate — and how and where do they tend to do so — three cases of political involvement are presented: ATTAC Argentina, the Klampun Community of Papua New Guinea and the World YWCA. The theoretical sections rest on a broadly based research study suggest a reformulation of the common adult perception on youth political participation.

Key Words: activism • NGOs • political participation • social movements • volunteering • youth

International Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 4, 467-497 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0268580909334498


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