People’s participation in their own development is at the core of Communication forDevelopment. This study explores the potential and barriers for youth civic engagementespecially among the urban youth in Bhutan, a newly democratised country in theEastern Himalayas. Youth Initiative (YI), a project begun in the fall of 2013 by a groupof local youth and mentored by a local civil society organisation, the Bhutan Centre forMedia and Democracy, was chosen as the case study.The study analyses how and in which arenas youth enact their citizenship inBhutan; how young people themselves see their opportunities to participate indemocratic processes, analysing social, cultural and political factors influencing theirparticipation; whether their civic participation is critical or conforming to the existingsocial structures; how could Facebook foster democratic culture and youth civicengagement; and what is the link between youth civic engagement and social capital.Data were collected through three (3) focus group discussions with youth andnine (9) qualitative interviews with founders or steering committee members of the YI.The 19 young participants of the focus group discussions were between 17 to 28 yearsold, two of the groups consisting of YI representatives and one of unemployed youth.The interview data together with relevant textual sources were analysed through theconceptual framework of participatory democracy and social capital. Three distinctthemes could be identified through the qualitative thematic analysis: 1. Youth agency inthe public sphere; 2. Inequality and corruption; and 3. Cultural change. Particularlyinformal cultural barriers, such as respecting authorities and the lack of democraticculture to have an equal, critical dialogue in the public sphere were seen as mainobstacles for youth civic engagement in Bhutan.The findings indicate that youth civic engagement is a crucial component instrengthening social capital, particularly mutual trust across different groups andgenerations of people. The study argues that it is possible to create a space for intergenerational dialogue that encompasses and respects the diverse, but overlappingspheres of youth agency, democratic communication and social harmony.

Focusing on the rising attention towards including the local population in humanitarian action, this study demonstrates how youth participation can produce effective results in a humanitarian response, making use of the post-disaster response to the 2015 Nepal earthquake as a case study. The research was intended to investigate the specific factors that enable youth participation to produce effective results in humanitarian programming, examining the methods that organisations used to involve youth, the benefits and challenges that arose from the process, and how effectiveness could be measured for the purpose of qualitative analysis. After constructing a conceptual framework around the key themes of the study, the thesis analysed the findings from 3 in-depth semi-structured interviews with informants from Restless Development Nepal, an organisation that actively involved youth volunteers in its emergency response. The activities which included these youth volunteers, most notably those that involved working closely with the local community through community mobilisation, benefitted from three main qualities embodied by the volunteers, these being their availability, flexibility and embeddedness within their own localities. The prior expertise of the implementing organisation in working with youth was another factor contributing to the programme outputs, as they possessed the social network and resources necessary to quickly train and mobilise the volunteers. The effectiveness of youth participation, which was measured not only through an examination of the programme results, but also through an assessment of how well the participatory activities managed to achieve the intended purposes of participation discussed in theoretical texts, revealed the possibility of youth participation in humanitarian responses to contribute to improving operational functions while still leading to self-empowerment and inner growth. The actual capacity of each organisation to include youth in their responses, however, is a defining factor in the methods in which youth may be able to use their inherent capabilities to contribute to the effectiveness of any operation.

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The goal of the presented thesis is to understand how parliaments of children and youth influence past members 'civic engagement after they leave the parliament's structure. The topic is seen by the actors. The theoretical part is focused on the concept of civic engagement, especially on youth participation. The Czech legislative frame is also mentioned. The biographical design was chosen for the methodology of the research. As a method of data collecting I collected 10 deep interviews with formal members who took part in parliaments of children and youth in the same time. The research revealed that the participation in parliaments of children and youth influences not only the civic engagement of formal members but also choosing the branch of study, its own studying at university, gaining job and the life path in general. At the same time the study presents the fields of contribution of participation in the structure of parliaments of children and youth for formal members. These fields are important for various branches of life.

The secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people have been significant, including impacts on education, young people’s social lives, physical activity and mental health, as well as increased abuse. These impacts risk running into the long term, and in order to mitigate this, a better understanding of how children and young people’s lives have changed and the role they can play in driving solutions is needed.   UNICEF’s global Communication for Development (C4D) team has commenced a collaborative project with partners, the Children & Young People Participatory Research and Communication for Change Initiative, to better understand the experiences and perspectives of children and young people in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to what extent they are able to be involved in developing solutions. As part of this initiative, desk reviews were carried out to establish the landscape of children and young people’s experience of issues in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their participation in these issues.   This paper serves to narrow down the focus of the subsequent research to be undertaken by UNICEF and partners as part of the initiative, which will produce new information on children and young people’s experiences and participation in the context of COVID-19, and help build a model for children and young people’s participation to inform future UNICEF Communication for Development programmes. Through interviews and focus groups with UNICEF staff in the 11 participating country offices, this paper produces a set of recommendations for specific areas of research in terms of the key issues to be further investigated regarding children and young people’s participation in the context of COVID-19. It also demonstrates how using strengths-based and intersectional approaches to the research can bring subaltern youth voices in particular to the fore.

With a tremendous demographic boom and the high importance of the youth population, Ethiopia is currently dealing with critical challenges to ensure sustainable development within the country. The recent appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister has brought new hope for Ethiopian liberalisation and the improvement of former political systems. Positively impacting the non-governmental sector, concrete measures taken by the federal government are still lacking whereas time is running on the youth generation. Quality education and enrolment rates in schools remain low which has high consequences on the participation of youths in the labour market. Lacking basic skills, youth are not provided with opportunities and trust that are essential for favouring their self-development. Conducted in parts of Ethiopia’s rural areas, this research aims to understand, discuss and elaborate on different youth empowerment methods for educational incentives to contribute to the overall improvement of youth conditions. In collaboration with local and international stakeholders working on policy and field level in the country, this research provides the reader with a clear understanding of the Ethiopian youth sector situation and the need for improvement in order to ensure meaningful youth participation and empowerment towards inclusive sustainable change. The role of the government has been discussed in extent in order to provide the reader with concrete recommendations for policy-making and other issues related to skills-mismatching, access to resources, training, and data, as well as cross-collaboration between youth and other stakeholders to increase awareness about challenges faced. The study concludes with giving clear guidance on youth empowerment in Ethiopia and future research on the overall topic.

Ungdomar har rätt att delta och påverka beslut som berör deras omgivning och vardag. Det finns ett stort intresse bland många av de svenska kommunerna att involvera ungdomar i samhällsplaneringen, trots detta är de underrepresenterade i kommuners planering. Det främsta problemet är att kommunerna inte vet vilka dialogmetoder och dialogstrategier de ska använda för att engagera och involvera ungdomarna. Studiens syfte är att hitta dialogmetoder och dialogstrategier som landsbygdskommuner och kommuner med gles landsbygd kan tillämpa i arbetet med ungdomsfrågor. Målet är att hitta dialogmetoder och dialogstrategier som får ungdomarna i Ockelbo kommun mer delaktiga i kommunens planering och utvecklingsarbete. De slutsatser och rekommendationer som detta examensarbete grundar sig på är en följd av flera olika dialogmetoder och dialogstrategier. Inledningsvis undersöktes hur Emmaboda- och Malung-Sälens kommun arbetar för att involvera fler ungdomar i planeringen. Därefter genomfördes en enkätundersökning vars syfte var att se hur intresset för att delta i kommunens planering såg ut bland Ockelbos ungdomar i åldrarna 13-15 år. Till sist utfördes tre fokusgrupper med Ockelbos högstadieelever, en för varje årskurs, för att diskutera hur de skulle kunna involveras och bli mer delaktiga i Ockelbo kommuns planering och utvecklingsarbete. De dialogmetoder och dialogstrategier som framgick av undersökningen på de två svenska kommunerna var att de arbetade mycket med att nå ut till ungdomarna i skolorna, på ungdomsgårdar samt genom ungdomsråd. Resultatet från enkätundersökningen visar att ungdomarna i Ockelbo kommun har ett intresse för att vara delaktiga i kommunens planering. I fokusgrupperna diskuterades viktiga komponenter, som till exempel återkoppling, till ett ökat ungdomsdeltagande i Ockelbo kommun. En slutsats är att det krävs tydligare riktlinjer för kommuners politiker, tjänstemän och ungdomar i arbetet med att öka ungdomars delaktighet i samhällsplaneringen. Det är viktigt att förklara när och hur ungdomarna ska vara delaktiga och hur politiker och tjänstemän ska hantera de inkomna förslagen från ungdomarna. En aktiv återkoppling har en betydande roll för att upprätthålla ungdomars engagemang och intresse. / Young people have the right to participate and influence decisions that affect their environment and everyday life.  Despite this, young people are underrepresented in community planning although there is great interest among many of the Swedish municipalities to include them. The main problem is that the municipalities don't know which methods of dialogue and dialogue strategies they need to use to engage and involve young people. The study focuses on finding dialogue methods that smaller municipalities with limited resources can use. The aim is to find dialogue methods that will get young people in Ockelbo municipality more involved in community planning and development. To find viable solutions, the conclusions and recommendations of this thesis are based on several different methods and strategies of dialogue. This study initially examined how Emmaboda and Malung-Sälen municipality are trying to involve more young people in community planning. This study was followed by a survey in Ockelbo municipality. The aim was to find how the levels of interest looked among young people, ages 13-15, to participate more in community planning. Finally, three focus groups were conducted with Ockelbo school students, one for each grade. The purpose was to discuss how they could become more involved in Ockelbo municipality's community planning and development. The results from the case study showed that municipalities worked on reaching out to young people in schools, youth centers and by youth councils. It also showed that young people in Ockelbo has an interest in being involved in community planning. The focus groups discussed key components to increased youth participation, such as feedback. It was concluded that clearer guidelines for municipal politicians, officials and young people are required to increase youth participation. It is important to explain when and how young people should be involved and how politicians and officials deal with their proposals. Active feedback plays a significant role in maintaining youth involvement and interest.

In 2017 the Ontario government moved forward with new child welfare legislation, Bill 89, spelling out that the 47 Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario will be much more ‘child-centric’. I explore the historical context of the ‘child-centric’ language and commitments in the new Act, including tracing its origin by the Act’s incorporation of the Katelynn Principle and Article 12 of the 1989 United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child. How best to consult youth in-care is an essential, but a mostly unanswered question. Children Aid Societies across the province have a unique opportunity to implement alternative methods in engaging young people in consultation, should they pan out as viable and reliable strategies when consulting youth in-care. Tradition interview approaches are not always the best strategies when engaging youth. Visual research methods, such as photo-elicitation, have the potential of offering useful insights into children’s perspectives and experiences. The focus of my thesis is youth voice. I explore this topic through a study with young people in-care involved in a music group. I used focus groups and photo-elicitation as methods for data collection. An important question addressed by my thesis is whether a visual research method, such as photo-elicitation, helps in the consultation process with young people and whether some of the claims made about the approach are accurate when working with youth. Specifically, I explored claims made about photo-elicitation helping with increasing 'emotional type talk' and inquired into how the method may enhance the consultation process with young people. I consider these questions in the context of important epistemological and theoretical debates about arts-informed and visual research methodologies. Five youth who had involvement of being in-care and were a part of a music group at a local Children’s Aid Society participated in my study. My study found that the youth overall felt consulted and did feel a degree of influence in shared decision making with being in-care. My study also showed that although photo-elicitation did not generate more ‘emotional-type talk’, it does appear to enhance self-confidence, which seemed to support meaningful participation in the interview process. Although much more needs to be explored with the application of visual research methods, and social science researchers should be cautious in making exaggerated claims in support of the approaches, youth in-care can surely benefit from visual research methods such as photo-elicitation. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:55:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sibelle da Fonseca.pdf: 1462507 bytes, checksum: f3ffb035906d994be0f9e735f7a34316 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-18 / The interfacing between the environment, health and education constitute the subject of this work. The research involved 05 elementary public schools of Goiania, conducting interviews (using questionnaires with open-ended questions) with those people in charge of educational directives with the Municipal Secretary of Education, 02 educational coordinators, 07 teachers and 40 students of the second and third levels, in schools located on the outskirts, in rundown areas or with decaying infrastructure, around the city, with the objective of identifying some social issues about the environment and verifying if the subject of Environmental Education, in the form it has been managed, encourages young people to participate in the control of environmental quality as a way of ensuring a healthy quality of life. The right to have access to Environmental Education, constitutionally guaranteed and supported by the City Hall of Goiania, however, is not put into practice regularly but the research indicates that other critical factors exist for the implementation of a differentiated education directed towards the formation of an active citizen. / As mediações entre meio ambiente, saúde e educação constituem o tema deste trabalho. A pesquisa envolveu 05 escolas de Ensino Fundamental da Rede Pública Municipal de Goiânia, entrevistando-se, por intermédio de questionários com questões abertas, os 02 responsáveis pelas diretrizes pedagógicas da Secretaria Municipal de Educação, 05 coordenadores pedagógicos, 07 professores e 40 alunos que cursam os 2º e 3º ciclos das escolas periféricas do município, situadas em áreas degradadas ou com precária infra-estrutura do entorno da cidade de Goiânia, no intuito de identificar as representações sociais sobre meio ambiente e verificar se o tema Educação Ambiental, da forma como vem sendo ministrado, suscita a participação dos jovens no controle da qualidade ambiental como garantia de uma sadia qualidade de vida. O direito de acesso à Educação Ambiental, garantido constitucionalmente, é respaldado pela Prefeitura de Goiânia, porém não se efetiva como uma prática. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa aponta a existência de outros fatores críticos para a implantação de uma educação diferenciada voltada para a formação de um cidadão atuante.

Adults working as teachers and doctors can find it difficult to communicate well with young people about the issues that affect their wellbeing and learning and thus miss opportunities to contribute when their clients experience adversity. Drama is often used as a pedagogical tool to assist people to develop their communication skills. Dramatic portrayals however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for learning through drama to contribute to a patronising world-view and lead to the assumption that a set of formulaic approaches can bridge the communication divide. There is thus a need for research that engages both theoretically and technically with the use of drama as a tool for applied learning. In this thesis, a reflective practitioner methodology is used to explore the use of drama as a method in participatory enquiry and as a tool in the professional education of teachers and doctors. Use of the practitioner perspective permits analysis of the alignment between theory and practice. The Learning Partnerships project provides the context within which to conduct this enquiry. In this project the researcher leads drama workshops that bring together classes of school students and tertiary students completing their studies in medicine or education. The adolescents work as co-investigators with the teachers and doctors, exploring how to communicate effectively in the institutional contexts of schools and clinics.