Spaces for youth participation in decision-making: a pedagogical reflection based on a content analysis of european and international youth strategies

The paper aims to present a pedagogical reflection on the spaces for youth participation in decision-making, drawing on a content analysis of the most recent European and international youth strategies Youth participation is at the centre of international and European policies and strategies. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development considers youth rights essential to the development of a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world (UN General Assembly, 2015). The Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009) identified participation as one of the four principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and thus it has been recognized not only as a right, but also as a cross-cutting interpretation and implementation of all other rights. A content analysis (Berelson, 1952) of the most recent youth strategies of the European Union (2018), the Council of Europe (2020) and the United Nations (2018) was conducted to explore how youth participation is described and what meanings it assumes in policies. In particular, this contribution will focus on the spaces of participation dedicated to young people. The youth strategies, and especially that of the European Union, gives prominence to the theme of spaces of participation, defining them in terms of both physical and virtual spaces, and understanding youth spaces as autonomous, open, safe, and accessible to all. This is of particular interest because it dovetails with an emerging reflection in the literature, which points out that recent years are witnessing a shift in the spaces of participation (Willems, Heinen & Meyers, 2012). In fact, alongside the decrease in traditional forms of youth participation - associated with political, formal and public contexts accessed "by invitation" (Cornwall, 2008) there is a rise in innovative or alternative forms of participation-characterized by the combination of physical and virtual spaces (Willems, 2012), as well as more "popular" spaces, often claimed or created by young people themselves (Bacalso, 2016). Youth strategies thus emphasize not only the centrality of youth participation in decision-making processes, but from their analysis it begins to emerge how participation is taking on different meanings and spaces than traditional forms. In particular, this contribution aims to read through a pedagogical lens this emerging change in policies, offering pedagogical suggestions for promoting new spaces for youth participation.