Young Citizenship: Civic Engagement and Participation in Four Nordic Countries

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 2000s several studies have expressed a strong concern about young people’s lack of interest in political issues and their low degree of political participation through traditional channels. This article aims to describe the civic engagement and participation of young Nordic people today by investigating the extent to which they participate in everyday civic activities and show signs of civic engagement. Participation in school democracy, local youth organisations and organisations with socio-political aims such as environmental issues, or engaging in discussions with family or friends on social and political issues shows how young people are active as citizens in their own right. At the same time, these activities and networks are important for the socialisation of youth for democracy. Young people’s engagement as young citizens and seeing themselves as voters and active political participants in adulthood is important for the reproduction and renewal of democracy. In this article, we address the question of to what degree young people are passive or active citizens in school, leisure and family contexts The analyses are based on the ICCS study in 2016 for Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.