It used to be that youth policy around participation was focused on bringing youth into the institutional forms of participation, is this still the case?
According to respondents civic engagement requires a secure and empowering environment, the ability and possibility to speak and to be heard, an agreed vision of where to go and how, and having at least medium living standards. An honest and responsive government was perceived as a precondition for creating such an enabling environment. Participants also named other necessary conditions for their engagement - responsible citizens and well developed civil society as well as institutionalized channels for participation.” (source: Georgian preliminary Post2015 consultations report provided by UNDP)
In Edgeryders we are seeing how youth are active in creating their own initiatives and spaces that work with different kinds of procedures and practices than institutional politics. And that civi/ political participation is not some activity or engagement separated from the rest of their lives - youth become political as thoughtful consumers or boycotters, as adopters of alternative currencies (sharing as opposed to buy-sell practices), as users of particular digital tools (eg the free software movement) etc. We make choices that are in themselves political and lie outside formalized, institutional spaces. That is also civic participation (source).
We would like to compare notes with peers dealing with the issue in different parts of the world.
What initiatives are individuals involved in, practically, to influence decision making or get a political point of view across? What are the spaces and channels they deem most trustworthy? What kind of projects have succeeded in building empowerment and re-building legitimacy among citizenry?
You know the situation on the ground where you are better than us. Help us reach out to people running interesting initiatives we can learn from, and invite them to join us by writing and sharing a mission brief in English and Your language (please use this template for online community builders).
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