Abstrakt

The aim of this study was to show youth civic participation as a social inclusion element in the Southern Baltic region in need of reinforcement, based on the examples of selected municipalities from Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. The authors focused on the diagnosis of key elements of youth civic engagement at local and cross-border level, taking into account the context of national youth policies and the European Union policy. The problem was highlighted from the perspective of two social groups: adult decision-makers represented by employees of local institutions and young people aged 14–24 from the mentioned SB YCGN project partner's countries. The core part of the monograph consists of the results of quantitative and qualitative studies conducted on the two populations. Their objective was to identify and assess the needs of institutions and young people relating to the stimulation of youth civic participation at local and cross-border levels, youth engagement in decision-making processes, key barriers to civic participation of young people and effective forms and methods of involving youth in active citizenship. The adopted research hypothesis - youth civic participation is an important element of civic society that requires strengthening in Lithuania, Poland and Sweden through bottom-up actions at local communities level, with the central role played by institutions - was confirmed. The institutional environment offers hidden, untapped potential, surpassing that of youth, for initiating and implementing inclusive action, so that the voice of young people in decision-making processes can be heard and taken into account by decision-makers. There were used the research methods: literature, legal and institutional analysis along with quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative studies were based on the diagnostic survey method and the electronic survey technique on a sample of 213 institution representatives, and a sample of 1001 respondents aged 14–24 from seven Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish municipalities. The qualitative studies used focus group discussions with the participation of 33 young people and 15 adult representatives of institutions, as well as the method of semistructured individual interviews with 17 adult representatives of youth institutional environment in the SB YCGN project partner's countries.

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