Youth participation habits changes constantly. Efforts to keep up with new forms of political participation is seen in international organizations, national governments and the academic community. How do young people themselves regard their participation in these new forms? One alternative form of political participation is youth organizing. This study uses a multi-case research design by interviewing Kenyan and Swedish young people who have participated in one of two youth organizing programs, organized by the non-governmental organization Fryshuset. This study aimed to uncover what youth value with youth organizing as a participation form, what goals they have with their participation and how their self-organized initiatives reflect said goals, by applying theories on empowerment, delieration, agonistic pluralism and factors affecting political participation. What youth value with youth organizing is personal development, meeting new people and getting the opportunity to make a local impact. Furthermore the study found that the primary goal of their participation was to strengthen their local community. Finally the findings show how youth preferred deliberative means to achieve their goals.

Thesis ( Agricultural Extension) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Refer to the document

Media in Nairobi is segmented when it comes to news and information; different media target different audience groups in the society through their preferred channels in search of news and information.     In Kibera, the biggest slum area in Nairobi and in whole East Africa, the urban slum community radio station Pamoja FM only works for the citizens living within Kibera. We aimed to find out how the youth in Kibera perceive the efficacy of the radio station as a viable source of news and information. We wanted to establish how important this radio station is to them as a tool of empowerment and knowledge to the youth.   Through semi-structured interviews with the youth in Kibera we carried out a qualitative research study during ten weeks, from October until December in 2011. We walked the field in Kibera to gather as much data as possible, and our findings were very interesting.   Key theories used in this study included the participatory communication model, the media dependency model and the uses and gratifications model.   The findings indicated that Pamoja FM has a great influence in the community as it is considered the most important source for news and information for the youth in this slum, and provides a platform that meets their needs as active participating audiences to the content supplied by the radio station. The radio is accredited to have changed the citizens´ way of thinking about tribalism since the post-election violence in 2007; the young women have assertively declared their space by playing a more proactive role in the community and audiences are empowered with home-grown problem solving skills that have bettered their lives and in pursuit for peace.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19155号 / 地環博第130号 / 新制||地環||26 / 32106 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 ｼｮｳ ﾗｼﾞﾌﾞ, 教授 岡﨑 健二, 准教授 西前 出 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2016-07-07T21:56:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Bulhosa, Rebeca Ribas.pdf: 1480021 bytes, checksum: 8057684b62813a673ca39990f8a7cfc3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2016-07-08T18:26:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Bulhosa, Rebeca Ribas.pdf: 1480021 bytes, checksum: 8057684b62813a673ca39990f8a7cfc3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-08T18:26:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bulhosa, Rebeca Ribas.pdf: 1480021 bytes, checksum: 8057684b62813a673ca39990f8a7cfc3 (MD5) / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar a formação de grupos políticos que acontecem no âmbito dos conselhos gestores. Para isso pretende analisar o desenho formal dos processos eleitorais do Conselho Nacional de Juventude (Conjuve) e as composições que deles se resultam. O estudo analisou documentos e marcos legais do Conselho, assim como realizou observação da Assembleia Eleitoral e aplicou instrumento, buscando identificar a percepção dos conselheiros acerca dos grupos por eles formados. Tudo foi complementado com dados da vivência da pesquisadora, enquanto conselheira nacional de juventude. Entre os achados desse estudo está o reconhecimento da existência dos grupos pelos conselheiros e sua classificação de acordo com o que os identifica. A análise do desenho dos processos eleitorais do Conjuve permitiu a percepção de que não é ele o fator determinante para a formação dos grupos, embora seja um disparador inicial na medida em que convoca determinados atores e não outros. Por fim, o estudo levantou questões sobre as possibilidades de influência dos grupos na ação do Conselho. / This work aims to study the formation of political groups inside management councils. It will analyze the formal design of elections of the National Youth Council (Conjuve) and the compositions that result, as well as legal documents and milestones of the Council, making note of the Electoral Assembly and applied instruments, seeking to identify the perception of directors about the groups they formed. Everything was supplemented with data from the experience of the researcher, while national youth counselor. Among the findings of this study is the recognition of the existence of the groups by the counselors and their classification according to what identifies them. The analysis of the design of the electoral process of the Conjuve showed that it is not the determining factor for the formation of groups, but an initial trigger, because it calls for certain players and not others. Finally, the study raised questions about the possibilities of influence of these groups in the Council's actions.

This thesis has attempted to understand and deepen our knowledge of political participationamong students in upper secondary education. The thesis has explored potential motives to participate, or not to participate, what strategies they would use if they were to hypothetically participate, and furthermore how their political behavior relates to their expectations on democracy. Data were collected through semi-structured interview with 16 upper secondarystudents which was divided into three focus groups. The results imply different reasons forwhy they would, or would not participate politically. The most prominent reasons were frustration, norms, and fear. These reasons are inhibiting them from participating politically. The strategies they would utilize if they would want to change something politically concernboth collective and individual forms of participation. However, individual forms seem to be preferred, especially when it comes to social media. The simplicity and its ability to mobilizewith small resources make social media an attractive alternative among these youths. Participation in elections is important for them as citizens since the election is regarded as their opportunity to change within the scope of democracy. Likewise, participation in elections is an act they expect from other citizens. The result indicates that these students’political passivity is not explained by their lack of trust in democracy. Passivity can rather be described in more optimistic terms where a political interest exists and is nourished continuously, but they do not consider themselves to have enough reasons to act.

Medborgardialoger är ett allt vanligare inslag inom planering, och framhålls ofta som ett viktigt verktyg för att främja den lokala demokratin och medborgarnas inflytande över planeringen. Inte sällan finns det stora förväntningar på medborgardialogers potential, då inte bara för ökad demokrati, utan även på den ska bidra till en ökad effektivitet i planeringsprocessen eller ge legitimitet till ett planförslag. Samtidigt är syftena med specifika dialogprojekt ofta är oklart definierade, och många dialogprojekt lider av problem med bristande representativitet och lågt inflytande över den fortsatta planeringen. Stadskärnan i Sundbyberg norr om Stockholm ska genomgå stora förändringar i och med att Mälarbanan kommer dras ner i tunnel och Sundbybergs stad har arbetat med en vision för den nya stadskärnan sedan våren 2013. En del av det arbetet har handlat om att genomföra ett dialogprojekt för att ge Sundbybergsborna en möjlighet att bidra till visionen. För att bättre nå unga i det arbetet genomfördes idétävlingen Ung C Sundbyberg under våren 2015. Jag har gjord en kvalitativ fallstudie över Ung C Sundbyberg som ett atypiskt fall av ambitiösa dialogprojekt som riktar sig specifikt mot unga, med syftet att få en djupare förståelse för spelrummet i frågeställningen och motiven bakom dialogprocesser, då särskilt ungdomsdeltagande. Genom fältstudier där jag närvarat på, gjort observationer och till en begränsad del deltagit i fem workshopar som genomförts i den första deltävlingen i Ung C Sundbyberg söker jag svara på frågor om varför unga var en viktig grupp att nå, hur tävlingsuppgiften ramades in av processledarna och hur tävlingen förhöll sig till ideal om hur en ”god” dialog ska uppnås. Trots de initiala ambitionerna med tävlingen går det inte att förstå fallet som en medborgardialog som ska bidra till ett större demokratiskt inflytande över visionsarbetet för Sundbybergs nya stadskärna. En del av materialet tyder också på att intresset för ungdomar som grupp går att ifrågasätta, istället handlar det snarare om ett dialogarbete nära besläktat med marknadsundersökningar, med ambitioner att skapa uppmärksamhet kring stadsomvandlingen i Sundbyberg. / Citizen dialogues are an increasingly common feature in planning, and are frequently declared to be an important tool to promote local democracy and citizens' influence in the planning. Not seldom, there are great expectations for the potential of citizen dialogue, not only for increased democracy, but also on contributions to an increased efficiency in planning or better legitimacy to a propose plan. At the same time the objectives of the specific dialogue projects are often vaguely defined, and numerous dialogue projects suffer from problems with lack of representativeness and low influence on the future planning. The city centre of Sundbyberg, north of Stockholm will undergo major changes when Mälarbanan will be drawn down into a tunnel, and Sundbybergs stad has worked with a vision for the new city centre since spring 2013. Part of the work has focused on implementing a dialogue project to give residents in Sundbyberg an opportunity to contribute to the vision. To better reach young people in the work with this vision, an idea competition called Ung C Sundbyberg was carried out in the spring of 2015. I have made a qualitative case study of Ung C Sundbyberg as an atypical case of ambitious dialogue projects aimed specifically at young people, with the aim to gain a deeper understanding of the scope of, and motives behind the dialogue process, and especially youth participation. Through field studies where I attended and made observations at, and to a limited extent participated in five workshops conducted in the first round of Ung C Sundbyberg I seek to answer questions about why young people was an important group to reach, how the competition task was framed by the process managers and how the competition is related to ideals of how a "good" dialogue can be achieved. Despite the initial ambitions of the competition, you cannot understand the case as a citizen dialogue that will contribute to greater democratic control over the visionary work of Sundbyberg's new city centre. Some of the material also suggests that the interest in young people as a group is questionable, rather it is more about the dialogue work is closely related to market research, with ambitions to draw attention to urban transformation in Sundbyberg.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19155号 / 地環博第130号 / 新制||地環||26(附属図書館) / 32106 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 ｼｮｳ ﾗｼﾞﾌﾞ, 教授 岡﨑 健二, 准教授 西前 出 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

In this study we focus on how Swedish youth organizations influenced formulation of anational agenda 2030 policy, contributing enhanced understanding how independent,representative and youth-led organizations can facilitate young people's participation insocietal change. A secondary query concerns what challenges and opportunities to a highlevel of youth participation can be found, aiming to learn from a crucial case of youthparticipation in formulation of national policy under favorable conditions in the supposedlyinclusive Agenda 2030-framework. This case study was designed inspired by process tracingmethod and an attributed influence approach using semi structured interviews to supplementrecords and reports from the Agenda 2030-committee. Through this study we conclude thatyouth organizations are seen as important and influential actors, and often invited as experts.But evidence of large degree of effect on final policy is lacking. Related to this we find thatthe Agenda 2030-committee largely wielded a form of communicational influence towardsthe Swedish government which for the most part ignored its conclusion andrecommendations. We therefore conclude that this unclear relation between the dialoguestructure and formal decision-making process contributes a considerable challenge toqualitative participation. Even as the consultation have been designed to facilitate organizedinterests we find that government officials stress the importance of reaching “real” youthrather than members of youth organizations, effectively creating a dichotomy betweenorganized and non-organized youth.

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of the global development agenda. In recent years, young people have been publicly recognised as key stakeholders in efforts to address it. One of the platforms through which young climate activists and advocates engage in climate governance is the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Typically accompanied by widespread media coverage, COPs provide opportunities for both State and Non-State Actors - including youth - for claim-making, agenda-setting, advocacy, and awareness raising.    Despite the growing attention to youth-led climate activism, research on the ways in which youth participate in the COPs, their experiences, and perceptions of their participation, has been limited and has tended to focus on youth from the Global North. To begin to address this gap, this research explores the experiences of youth climate activists and advocates from the Global South at the COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. Informed by theories and frameworks of participation, the objective is to understand how these young people participated, the factors and dynamics which affected their experience, and how they viewed their participation. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews conducted in March and April 2022 with 11 young people who were all first-time attendees of the COP.   During COP26 they were engaged in activities in both the formal spaces of COP, such as side-events and negotiations, as well as informal or civil society spaces like marches and offsite events. Perceptions of youth participation varied among the interviewees and depended on the spaces or interactions discussed. Many expressed frustrations with the narrow opportunities for young people to engage in the official decision-making processes. However, despite the challenges to their participation in the formal spaces of COP26, young people experienced strong community connections with other youth, acquired new knowledge or skills, and established links and collaborative opportunities with other organisations and youth. In spite of the limitations, many saw value in the continued participation of young people in formal spaces of the COP and shared suggestions for enhancing young people’s engagement.