International Conference on

Youth Policy and Research

Vienna 2009:
“From Theory to Practice “

Participation: a new place for

Young People in Policies and
Society.

Dina Krauskopf
Latin American School of Social Sciences,
FLACSO- Chile
dina.krauskopf@flacso.cl
PARTICIPATION IS NOT
 Univocal

 Without history

 Isolated from other aspects

THE ROLE OF YOUTH
 The role of youth in society has
changed, and with it so too has the
quality required in its participation.

 Itis necessary to include young people

both in how general issues are
addressed as well as those particular
to their own agenda.
STATE, SOCIETY AND
YOUTH
 Regarding traditional State perspectives:

 Focuses on youth as a being a source of generational overhaul,

in preparation for future adulthood, seen as a problem stage.
 Young people as beneficiaries, service receptors.

 Society:

 Conflictive with youth.

 Surpassed only by the conflict between rich and poor and that
between employers and workers (Latinobarómetro, 2007).
 It is not an acknowledged stage in life cycle: childhood,
adulthood, old age.
STATE AND YOUTH
 Transformations in State and society:
 Pressing need for a policy for relevant actors, additional to
sector policies.
 Youth as having their own rights and being strategic players
in development.
 Youth produce culture and are builders of knowledge.
 Youth are citizens not only when they vote in elections,
having an effective participation exerted with responsibility.

 Youth
 Support democracy as it being the best political system (as
seen from the results in regional surveys).
 Youth participations enriches the space available for public
action and in democratic development.
 Joint management stake-holders.
DIFFICULTIES IN OPENING
UP YOUTH PARTICIPATION
 Difficulty in adding contemporary change to youth-
sector relationships.
 Weak institutional proposals that may be seen as
really inclusive for the youth.
 Important obstacles present in power redistribution
and in how young people affect societal projects.
 Youth resistance, active disconnection, mistrust.
 Predominant in youth participation is a divide seen in
politics and the political process.
 Apparent apathy or youth dissatisfaction with politics.
 Latin America has a low rate of youth participation in
electoral processes
INTERGENERATIONAL
PROBLEMS
 Antagonist tension seen among adults and youth
 Resistance seen in adults in accepting a
protagonist and decision-making role in the young.
 Intergenerational gap accentuated by new
information and communication technologies.
 Blocks in communication leads to divergent
realities and stand-points, hindering joint-building
among generations.
INTERGENERATIONAL
COLLABORATION
 The situation is no longer that of a well-
prepared adult generation facing off a
young generation lacking any rights or
knowledge.
 Both generations require permanent
preparation.
 Adults and youth require intergenerational
dialogue and mutual acknowledgement
when attaining social achievements.
YOUTH PARTICIPATION BEARS
RELATIONSHIP WITH
 The quality of democracy.
 The political system.
 The orientation towards social inclusion.
 Cultural diversity.
 Gender relations.
 Existing channels for initiative proposal.
 The ways in which participation is
institutionalised and legitimised.
 How the generational distances are addressed.
 The ways in which youth associates itself.
OPENING-UP YOUTH
PARTICIPATION IN POLICIES
IS
 To revert youth mistrust towards institutions.
 To reduce the communication and citizen gap seen
among generations.
 Favour citizen inclusion in public affairs.
 Act from a generational focus on dialogue and
collaboration.
 Having youth participation from the design,
management and monitoring of actions of interest
and in evaluating policies.
 Acknowledge young people as being producers and
participants, having their own codes and vision.
INTERACTIVE AXIS IN
YOUTH PARTICIPATION
1 Change

YOUTH
PARTICIPATION

Agent of Agent of
knowledge influence
YOUTH PARTICIPATION PRACTICES
IN YOUTH SPACES
 Youth participation in building institutions
and in building a National Policy on Youth.
Costa Rica
 Participative building of policy and
management. The participative budget.
Brazil
 10% of youth participation in
municipalities,by law. Peru.
 Youth study youth, the Latin American
Youth Collective. 17 countries.
YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN THE BUILDING OF A
NATIONAL POLICY ON YOUTH AND IN
BUILDING INSTITUTIONS. COSTA RICA
 Young people participate in the
management structure of the policy, as
given by the Youth National System.
 Embedded in the system is the National
Young Peoples Assembly, which proposes
and approves policy initiatives.
 Policy implementation is spread-out more
with the participation of the District
Committee of the Young Person.
PARTICIPATIVE POLICY AND
MANAGEMENT BUILDING. THE
PARTICIPATIVE BUDGET. BRAZIL
 Jointly implemented with local government.
 Increases credibility of municipal administrations.
 Increases resources allotted to youth.
 Greater youth participation in public spaces.
 Youth participate as animators, multipliers, formative
agents, managers and evaluators.
 The participative budget is implemented in various States in
Brazil, and has been replicated in Argentina, Chile and
Colombia as a model for youth participation.
10% YOUTH PARTICIPATION
IN MUNICIPALITIES. PERU
 10% of local government must
be represented by Youth,
currently in force in Peru.

 Campaigning to add this 10%

quota to parliament.
YOUTH-ON-YOUTH IN THE LATIN AMERICAN
YOUTH COLLECTIVE (17 COUNTRIES IN LATIN
AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN).
 The young as knowledge producers. Young people
build knowledge using innovative means such as
audiovisual elements.
 Knowledge empowers and facilitates positive
communication and an intergenerational projection.
 Young people as actors in change and intervention,
out of their own initiatives.
 The model has been replicated in El Salvador, by
youth institutions and in FLACSO-Argentina in the
postgraduate program called “Young women in the
information/knowledge society: youth-on-youth”
SOME OF THE ROLES SEEN IN
YOUTH PARTICIPATION
 Consultant
 On purpose
 Decisive
 Executive
 Promotion
 Volunteer
 Allied