We live in the presence of reality: a qualitative approach to youth participation in unconventional political organisations

The project consists in analysing the causal mechanisms that lead some young people, characterised in quantitative studies as non-participatory, hostile to the political system and having low levels of internal and external political effectiveness, to break with this trend and become the leading actors in what have been called new organisations of political participation.

In order to make a diagnosis of these realities, we shall gather information on the new forms of organisation in Catalonia, choosing examples of each type in proportion to the frequency of their occurrence found in studies by the Youth Secretariat, the System of Youth Indicators and the Institute of Government and Public Policies.

The aim is to provide new guidelines for understanding the world of participating youth, explain their dynamics and differentiate them by examining the identities they have formed, the social capital they produce and the shared life experiences by which they are generated. In particular, it will analyse the causes leading young people to become involved in the new organisations, including socioeconomic factors, questions of identity and attitudes towards politics.

Understanding the new forms of political participation, the new youth organisations and the phenomena of indifference to and distancing from politics requires overcoming -socially and politically- knowledge of the matter based on alarmism and biased perceptions that often prevent people from observing reality as it is.