Youth civic participation and social connection in post-industrial society: a comparative analysis

Youth citizenship is a priority issue on policy and social agendas in Australia and Europe owing to emerging concerns about civic apathy on the part of young people today. To date, the main focus of policies and social research attempting to understand and divert this trend has been on inclusive and active citizenship, defined as participation in traditional political institutions and associational life. This project investigates the possibility that young people may define and enact citizenship in new, as yet unrecognized ways. It uses an innovative multidisciplinary, multimethod and crosscultural approach to identify new biographies of youth citizenship in Australia as compared with four European cohorts