Research: PARTISPACE and PARTIBRIDGES

Research summary

• October 2015 to July 2021

There is concern across Europe about the future of democracy, especially young people’s perceived failure to participate in democratic institutions. This is often put down to a lack of motivation or capability. Spaces and Styles of Participation (Partispace) asked whether young people are indeed failing to participate in civic society, or if their participation was instead taking different forms, which go unrecognised  or are delegitimised in popular discourse.

How do young people participate?

Partispace was a three year study which ran from 2015 to 2018, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The project examined the way in which young people participate in decisions which concern them, and, in general, the life of their communities. It assumes that all young people do participate, but that not all participation is recognised as such. To deepen understanding of what forms this participation takes, the project worked with young people aged from 15 to 30 in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK, examining formal, non-formal and informal methods of participation, and the way this is supported or inhibited by local youth policies and youth work.

The study involved a consortium of 30 researchers from nine universities across eight countries. To begin, the researchers conducted an initial mapping phase, where they carried out over 200 interviews and 100 focus groups. They then produced a comparative study of 48 case studies, made up of six exemplary settings from each city. The settings included a wide range of young people’s activities, starting from hanging around, moving through playing street music and drawing graffiti to more formally organised settings such as youth organisations or youth councils.

Researchers came from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, from those who adopted naturalistic approaches to observing behaviour at regular and defined intervals to those who immersed themselves for long periods of time and became active participants. To supplement the ethnographic material, 100 biographical interviews with young people were carried out whilst 10 Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects were conducted.

Creating tools to facilitate participation

PartiBridges is an initiative which began in January 2019, and scheduled to be completed in July 2021. It is funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme. PartiBridges is led by four universities, three of which led Partispace. The project brings together universities and youth associations in Rennes (France), Lisbon (Portugal), Eskisehir (Turkey) and Manchester, with the aim of developing closer cooperation between higher education, youth workers and young people with low educational backgrounds.

The project’s first strand was the design and implementation of an MA unit, which will be transformed into an online sequence that can be used in different educational and training sessions. Ultimately, this will lead to the construction of a European online module on youth participation, for an audience of students in higher education and other professionals involved with youth work.

The second output is the production of a web documentary coordinated by Manchester Met through an action-research project, also in collaboration with local organisations. Each team will develop their own web documentary, which will be edited into an inclusive international film, hosted online, displaying state of the art research and teaching in youth studies across Europe. Researchers at Manchester Met are working in partnership with practitioners and young people affiliated with YFNW to deliver this work.  

Research outputs

Academic papers

• McMahon, G. Rowley, H. Batsleer, J (2021-forthcoming) Reshaping youth participation: Manchester in a European Gaze. (Emerald)
• Roy, A. Kennelly, J. Rowley, A. & Larkins, C. (2020 ) A critical discussion of the use of film in participatory research projects with homeless young people: an international case-case based analysis. Qualitative Research. 1-18
• Rowley, H. ‘Lost and Found. Ethnographic Researcher and Arts Practitioners getting lost and coming home’ in Ferro, L. & Poveda, D. (2019) Learning, Arts and Ethnography. London: Tufnell Press
• Becevic, Z. Osmanoglu, B. Popivanov, B. Rowley, H. ‘Examining styles of youth participation in institutionalised settings as accumulation of capital forms’ in Walther, A. Batsleer, J.  Loncle, P. and Pohl, A. (2019) Young People and the Struggle for Participation. London: Routledge
• Rowley, H. Pitti, I. Mengilli, Y. Becevic, Z. Martelli, A. Martin, C. Osmanoglu, B. Percy-Smith, B. Popivanov, B. (2018) Styles: Young People’s Participation as Lived Practice. EU Report Deliverable 6.3.
• Loncle, P., Lüküslü, D., Pais, A.& Walther, A. (2020): Regimes of youth participation? Comparative analysis of constellations of local youth policies and youth participation across Europe. Young.
• Lüküslü, D., Pais, A., Tuorto, D., Walther, A. (2019): “This is like a compressed political system”. Ambivalences of formal youth participation. In A. Walther, A, J. Batsleer, P. Loncle, and A. Pohl, A. (eds.): Contesting young people’s practices in public space – The struggle for participation. London, Routledge.
• Batsleer, J., Ehrensperger, K., Lüküslü, F., Osmanoğlu, B., Pais, A., Reutlinger, C., Roth, P. Wigger, A. & Zimmermann, D. (2017): Claiming spaces and struggling for recognition. Comparative Case Study Report. PARTISPACE Deliverable 4.3. Zenodo. 
• Lüküslü, D., Pais, A., Tuorto, D., Walther, A. & Loncle, P. (2018). Local constellations of youth participation in comparative perspective. PARTISPACE Deliverable D 6.1. Zenodo.