Living, Doing, and Learning from Politics in a Youth Wing of a Political Party

The field of civic and political participation has been studied mostly from individual, psychological approaches rather than collective, relational perspectives. Here we address this gap through a political ethnography in the youth wing of a major Portuguese political party, conducted during the fervent months right before and after the Portuguese parliamentary elections of October 2015. Investigating the meaning-making of doing politics in real-life contexts, we assess the collective learning processes involved in political participation. This paper shows that youth wings can provide quality participation experiences. Indeed, collectively envisioning and constructing a more democratic society and working for the public good are guiding principles of the wing. Debatement politics and pedagogical politics thus play a fundamental role in the wing\u27s activity, even if they are accompanied by the more mundane, festive party politics and the backstage politics. Through their activity, the wing\u27s members acquire and display high levels of political efficacy, critical thinking and effort regulation regarding political involvement. Methodologically, this paper shows that ethnography is well equipped to study the experience of participation, foregrounding activities and perceptions of wing\u27s members in order to make sense of their learning processes and outcomes

Democratic citizenship-in-the-making: dis/engagement profiles of portuguese youth

Coming to terms with the multidimensionsionality of civic and political engagement implies analyzing it in a comprehensive manner: not limited to conventional modes of expression, nor to dichotomic perspectives or observable acts of participation. Studies in this field tend to overlook cognitive and emotional dimensions as types of engagement which, alongside with behavior, constitute citizenship. In this article, we analyze data from the Portuguese sample of the CATCH-EyoU Project’s survey (1,007 young people aged between 14 and 30 years old). The main result is the identification of four distinct profiles according to behavioral, emotional and cognitive forms of engagement: Alienated, Passive, Disengaged and Engaged. These profiles are then examined to assess whether and how they differ in terms of: i) national and European identification, ii) relationships with alternative and traditional media, iii) democratic support, and iv) attitudes towards immigrants and refugees. The relationship between the different profiles and individual socio-demographic variables is also examined. We discuss how different dis/engagement profiles relate with socio-political dimensions and have different consequences both in terms of the political integration of young people and of the political challenges faced by democratic societies

Les méthodes artistiques comme moyen d’envisager les possibilités de construction du genre et de ses relations

Based on a collaborative action-research project with a high school class, we discuss the possibilities that artistic methodologies bring to collective analysis and reflections in order to promote youth political consciousness. Through moments of aesthetic-political exploration, in which the Theatre of the Oppressed and Photovoice were mobilised, the young people reflected on their everyday experiences and problems, with dating violence emerging as the most significant theme. Local actors were added to the joint reflection between the young people, and visual narratives made by two groups were discussed. This article recognises the potential of the arts to problematise gender relations and constructions, to emotionally and subjectively involve participants, and as a way of politicising an ‘apparent’ individual problem.A partir de um projeto de investigação-ação colaborativa com uma turma do ensino médio, discutem-se as possibilidades que as metodologias artísticas trazem para análises e reflexões coletivas com vista à promoção da consciência política juvenil. Por meio de momentos de exploração estético-política, nos quais se mobilizou o Teatro do Oprimido e o Photovoice, os/as jo-vens refletiram sobre as suas experiências e problemas quotidianos, emergindo a violência do namo-ro como o tema mais significativo. À reflexão conjunta entre os/as jovens, somaram-se atores locais e discutiram-se narrativas visuais feitas por dois grupos. Neste artigo, reconhece-se o potencial das artes na problematização das relações e construções de género, na implicação emocional e subjetiva dos/as participantes e como modo de politizar um ‘aparente’ problema individual.Sur la base d’un projet de recherche-action en collaboration avec une classe de lycée, nous discutons des possibilités que les méthodologies artistiques apportent aux analyses et aux réflexions collectives en vue de promouvoir la conscience politique des jeunes. À travers des moments d'exploration esthético-politique, dans lesquels le Théâtre de l’Opprimé et Photovoice ont été mobilisés, les jeunes ont réfléchi à leurs expériences et problèmes quotidiens, la violence dans les relations amoureuses apparaissant comme le thème le plus significatif. Des acteurs locaux ont été ajoutés à la réflexion commune des jeunes, et les récits visuels réalisés par deux grou-pes ont été discutés. Cet article reconnaît le potentiel des arts pour problématiser les relations et les constructions de genre, pour impliquer les participants de manière émotionnelle et subjective, et comme moyen de politiser un problème individuel ‘apparent’

Living and doing politics: an educational travelongue through meanings processes and effects

Os jovens, fortemente afetados pela crise económica, pela precariedade laboral e pelacrescente insegurança ontológica, estão no centro das atenções no que respeita àparticipação cívica e política e seu papel na legitimação democrática. Com efeito, nosúltimos anos o fosso entre a política institucional e os grupos juvenis tem-se agravado, esimultaneamente novos repertórios e agendas políticas têm emergido. Esta investigaçãopretende a) explorar a relação entre o potencial pedagógico das experiencias cívicas epolíticas e a complexidade do pensamento académico; b) compreender os efeitos dasvariáveis socioeconómicas nessas experiências; c) analisar como os jovens interpretamo cenário sociopolítico e discutem as oportunidades de participação democrática; d) edescrever o modo como vivem e fazem política em diferentes contextos de participação.Baseada numa metodologia mista, esta investigação desenvolve-se em três níveis deanálise: individual (inquéritos por questionário a 1107 jovens), grupal (5 grupos dediscussão focalizada) e contextual (2 etnografias). De um modo geral, os resultadosmostram que a qualidade da participação contribui para a auto-regulação daaprendizagem; as variáveis socioeconómicas desempenham diferentes papéis noconhecimento político e nos padrões de participação, com o contexto escolar aintroduzir variações nesses padrões. Adicionalmente, os jovens apresentam discursoscríticos e comprometidos sobre a crise económica, levantando importantes questõessobre o acesso à política institucional, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à falta dereconhecimento da sua agência política e à falta de educação política, que alimenta umciclo vicioso de afastamento (comummente interpretado como desinteresse político).Finalmente, as etnografias numa juventude partidária e numa ONG revelam diferentesmodos de promover a mudança social: no primeiro, a política de debate e pedagógicaguiam a experiência; no segundo, cuidar do outro e investir no desenvolvimento pessoaldos voluntários coexiste com a rejeição de uma abordagem politizada das questõessociais. Em suma, esta investigação mostra os jovens como cidadãos ativos epoliticamente interessados; são, no entanto, conduzidos principalmente para formasnão-convencionais e cívicas de participação. A deslegitimação geral de discursospolíticos e a indisponibilidade da esfera política institucional para a partilha de poderestá a conduzir à despolitização do 'cívico3;, restringindo o capital político juvenil. Oconfronto de questões democráticas centrais, como a desigualdade, é potencialmentetransformador e pedagógico. O reconhecimento dessas experiências de aprendizagemdeve ser promovido e valorizado porque impulsiona o sucesso académico, masfundamentalmente porque a sobrevivência da democracia depende disso

Educating for participatory active citizenship: an example from the ecological activist field

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy and ethical concerns [but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request].Based on a short-term ethnography with a grassroots group of young environmental activists in the city of Porto, Portugal, this paper describes and problematizes their use of participatory methodologies to engage individual, community and organizational actors in tackling the problems of global climate change. By initiating what they call a “friendship network” that seeks to achieve democratic and participatory forms of activism, the group brings together both experienced and circumstantial activists (Ollis & Hamel-Green in Aust Adult Learn 55:202–219, 2015) in order to foster plural and situated learning (Lave & Wenger, Situated learning legitimate peripheral participation, 1991). The group does so by promoting the commitment of all actors (including opposite-minded ones) to the co-creation of a 4-day-municipal event on the theme of environmental sustainability. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic mechanism of the group and their actions as a nucleus, we firstly examine some of the groups’ views on civic and political participation (Stack, in Citizenship Studies 16:871–885, 2012) and, secondly, describe and discuss the methodologies they intentionally use to put citizenship-in-action and to foster the activation of ‘standby citizens’ (Amna & Ekman, in Amnå, E., & Ekman, J., Eur Political Sci Rev 6:261–281, 2014). This ethnography enabled us to learn how the group strives to achieve its goals by placing itself in-between the institutional sphere and the public realm: the ethnographer had the opportunity to observe their attempts to, on the one hand, influence decision-making by acquiring a degree of insider status in institutions that legislate and, on the other hand, to engage with large publics, encouraging citizens’ voices and involvement in processes of co-participation focused on promoting ecological consciousness and political change.Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). The authors disclosed receipt of the following fnancial support for the research and/or authorship of this paper: This study was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the grant agreement No PD/BD/114282/2016

In-between fatalism and leverage: the different effects of socioeconomic variables on students' civic and political experiences and literacy

Purpose: This article explores the classical relationship between socioeconomic status and political domains, and the need to include different variables (contextual and individual) to measure the effect of economic and cultural capitals on youth participation and knowledge. Method: A multivariate analysis of covariance was performed on a sample of 732 Portuguese students, from Grades 8 and 11, in order to analyse how different socioeconomic variables related to family and schooling contexts have an effect on their political knowledge and experiences.  Findings: The article highlights the differential role of socioeconomic variables on political knowledge and participatory patterns. Low economic capital instigates participation, while high cultural capital is related with higher political literacy. However, both forms of capital interact with the schooling context, revealing more complex patterns of behaviour and knowledge in students attending public and private schools