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.

This study aims to examine the driving factors behind youth organizing in Swedish urban outskirts, known as ’förorten’. The national organization Förenade Förorter, which acts as a platform for local youth organizations located in ’förorten’, serves as a case to illustrate the connection between experiences of racism, autonomous self-organizing and political influence. The study is based on interviews with representatives of these local youth organizations as well as the central organization. The material is analyzed through a theoretical framework of postcolonial theory and theories of democratic participation and representation, using the policy-analysis tool What’s the problem represented to be combined with the ACTIE-model used to contextualize community initiatives. The study concludes that structural racism serves as the main reason behind the founding of Förenade Förorter and its member organizations. The organizing can be described as a decolonizing strategy, where knowledge, experiences and practices are shared between the people involved in the network in order to deal with a society incapable of providing equal opportunity for all. The network serves as a platform for agency and collective strength while building structures to challenge existing democratic institutions - by being more democratic. / <p>2022-06-10</p>