Researching Youth Participation – theoretical and methodological reflections on limitations of existing research and innovative perspectives

In both youth research and pedagogical literature, and especially in related policy arenas, the perspectives often combine normative and analytical aspects, and the concept of participation is sometimes used uncritically, legitimised by a powerful discourse in which young people are addressed as the future of society. This chapter provides theoretical and methodological perspectives that help to deconstruct the ideological lenses through which participation is continually reproduced in ways defined by powerful institutional actors, and from there reconstruct the meaning of participation starting from the perspective of the participants, especially young people. An understanding of democracy is important in studying ways of youth participation that might not be recognised as such by conventional understandings of participation. Apart from participatory observation, group discussions can give access to practical knowledge of young people by reconstructing they refer to each other and the shared meanings of their activities in public spaces. Most processes of institutionalisation of youth participation are related to youth policies

Maintenance of mitochondrial integrity in midbrain dopaminergic neurons governed by a conserved developmental transcription factor.

Progressive degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Dysregulation of developmental transcription factors is implicated in dopaminergic neurodegeneration, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Drosophila Fer2 is a prime example of a developmental transcription factor required for the birth and maintenance of midbrain DA neurons. Using an approach combining ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, and genetic epistasis experiments with PD-linked genes, here we demonstrate that Fer2 controls a transcriptional network to maintain mitochondrial structure and function, and thus confers dopaminergic neuroprotection against genetic and oxidative insults. We further show that conditional ablation of Nato3, a mouse homolog of Fer2, in differentiated DA neurons causes mitochondrial abnormalities and locomotor impairments in aged mice. Our results reveal the essential and conserved role of Fer2 homologs in the mitochondrial maintenance of midbrain DA neurons, opening new perspectives for modeling and treating PD

Regimes of youth participation? Comparative analysis of youth policies and participation across European cities

This paper problematizes the assumption that national policies have a direct impact on youth participation at local level and analyses the relationships between local forms of youth participation and local and national policies. Relying on data from a EU project, the paper focuses on formally institutionalised settings of youth participation and elaborates local constellations of youth participation in six European cities. These constellations may be referred to as regimes of youth participation as they reflect wider structures of power and knowledge that influence the way in which young people’s practices in public spaces and their claims of being part of society are recognised. However, the analysis reveals that rather deducing it from the model of welfare regimes, such a typology needs to be developed starting from the local level and should consider the ways in which different relationships between local youth policies and national welfare states affect youth participation

CDK19 is disrupted in a female patient with bilateral congenital retinal folds, microcephaly and mild mental retardation

Microcephaly, mental retardation and congenital retinal folds along with other systemic features have previously been reported as a separate clinical entity. The sporadic nature of the syndrome and lack of clear inheritance patterns pointed to a genetic heterogeneity. Here, we report a genetic analysis of a female patient with microcephaly, congenital bilateral falciform retinal folds, nystagmus, and mental retardation. Karyotyping revealed a de novo pericentric inversion in chromosome 6 with breakpoints in 6p12.1 and 6q21. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis narrowed down the region around the breakpoints, and the breakpoint at 6q21 was found to disrupt the CDK19 gene. CDK19 was found to be expressed in a diverse range of tissues including fetal eye and fetal brain. Quantitative PCR of the CDK19 transcript from Epstein–Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines of the patient revealed ~50% reduction in the transcript (p = 0.02), suggesting haploinsufficiency of the gene. cdk8, the closest orthologue of human CDK19 in Drosophila has been shown to play a major role in eye development. Conditional knock-down of Drosophila cdk8 in multiple dendrite (md) neurons resulted in 35% reduced dendritic branching and altered morphology of the dendritic arbour, which appeared to be due in part to a loss of small higher order branches. In addition, Cdk8 mutant md neurons showed diminished dendritic fields revealing an important role of the CDK19 orthologue in the developing nervous system of Drosophila. This is the first time the CDK19 gene, a component of the mediator co-activator complex, has been linked to a human disease

Reshaping Youth Participation: Manchester in a European Gaze - Foreword [avant propos]

International audienceThis book is an important contribution for those who wish to understand in detail what youth participation initiatives — formal, non-formal or informal — mean and how they are implemented.The PARTISPACE research made it possible to reveal both a certain number of characteristics common to these initiatives in the various European cities studied, and strong specificities linked to the local areas in which they took place. These specificities refer to local systems that are largely marked by several elements: nation histories; national difficulties, especially young people’s living conditions; the values of national and local public policies in the broad field of social issues and in the more specific field of youth issues; and the state of the relations maintained between public and voluntary actors and with youth associations and groups.Overall, this book provides a detailed understanding of the local mechanisms at work in youth participation, the dynamics that run through the groups of young people who participate, and the professional and voluntary practices of the actors who accompany them. By considering specific examples of the participation of certain groups of young people (political groups, groups of young people seeking asylum, people with experience of street homelessness, feminists, artists, etc.), this book sets out the challenges encountered by the people involved in youth participation initiatives when they mobilise for their cause and local area, despite knowing that they may still experience social abjection. But, above all, the analysis demonstrates the particularly developed mobilisation capacities of these groups, their inventiveness, their solidarity, their acute understandings of their situations, and the importance of the roles they can play both in favour of the young people they represent and more widely of their local area.For all these reasons, reading this book will undoubtedly spark debate on the richness of youth participation initiatives in Europe, and will illustrate how young people are capable of renewing repertoires of action and contributing to the various forms of solidarity needed to face major contemporary challenges such as social, political and climate injustice, poverty, and the denial of human rights

Yaëlle Amsellem-Mainguy, Les Filles du coin. Vivre et grandir en milieu rural

International audienceAvec l’ouvrage Les Filles du coin, clin d’œil aux Gars du coin publié par Nicolas Renahy (La Découverte, 2005), Yaëlle Amsellem-Mainguy vient combler un manque en matière de connaissance sociologique. Longtemps laissée de côté au bénéfice de la jeunesse urbaine qui a largement concentré l’attention des chercheur·es, la jeunesse rurale a fait l’objet de publications récentes dans les champs académique, décisionnel et littéraire

Passeur·se

National audienceLa fonction de « passeur·se » est sans nul doute un invariant des recherches-actions « collaboratives, partenariales, participatives » (pour un essai de définition de ces termes, se reporter à Audoux & Gillet, 2015) faisant co-exister des acteurices « de terrain », professionnel·le·s, bénévole·s, habitant·e·s, membres de collectifs…, se revendiquant ou non d’être des chercheur·se·s « occasionnel·le·s » (Lyet, 2018) et des représentant·e·s du monde académique. Les questionnements sur les places occupées par les un·e·s et les autres, sur les positions de pouvoir qu’elles induisent, sur les difficultés pour les acteurices « de terrain » et les chercheur·se·s « occasionnel·le·s » de trouver leur place, pour les chercheur·se·s académiques de produire des résultats (Doucet & Dumais, 2015) apparaissent comme des questionnements assez partagés, existant sans doute depuis que cette forme de recherche a été progressivement promue (Burawoy, 2009).Néanmoins, pour moi qui ai découvert la recherche-action assez tardivement dans mon parcours de recherche et qui ai plus pratiqué cette forme de recherche que lu des ouvrages s’y rapportant, c’est un questionnement qui est apparu au détour de problèmes survenus dans le cadre du projet Ouye et qui m’a poussée à interroger le rôle occupé par les chercheur·se·s académiques dans les projets de recherche-action. (Extrait

Les pratiques de colocation des jeunes de classe moyenne : des stratégies résidentielles d’affirmation de soi dans un contexte d’incertitude ?

International audienceIn this article, we question the role that sharing practices can play in the pathways to independent housing for middle-class young people in a context of precariousness of this population. The article is based on a corpus of 25 semi-structured interviews conducted with 33 young people aged between 18 and 30 at the time of the interview (19 women and 14 men in the sample). The interviews were conducted mainly in a medium-sized conurbation between 2018 and 2020. As the residential pathway is closely linked to the lifecourse, a biographical perspective was deployed to capture the paths, junctions and temporalities that mark the entry and exit of shared accommodation. The article shows that the practices of home-sharing allow young people to escape from residential decline. Moreover, these practices are presented as a means, certainly to respond to economic difficulties, but also to build one's identity by opting for collective lifestyles. Finally, according to the young people, these practices can be thought of as parentheses while waiting for a couple to settle down or as sustainable lifestyle choices that challenge the dominant norms of the transitions to adulthood. In conclusion, the article insists on the fact that young people's co-tenancy practices can be seen as a means for individuals to construct their identity in a context of uncertainty and risks of social and residential downgrading for middle-class youth.Dans le présent article, nous interrogeons le rôle que peuvent jouer les pratiques de colocation dans les parcours vers le logement autonome des jeunes de classe moyenne dans un contexte de précarisation de cette population. L’article est basé sur un corpus de 25 entretiens semi-directifs conduits auprès de 33 jeunes ayant entre 18 et 30 ans au moment de l’entretien (19 femmes et 14 hommes composent l’échantillon). Les entretiens ont été menés essentiellement dans une agglomération de taille moyenne entre 2018 à 2020. Le parcours résidentiel étant très lié au parcours de vie, une perspective biographique a été déployée pour saisir les cheminements, les bifurcations et les temporalités qui viennent marquer l’entrée et la sortie de la colocation. L’article montre que les pratiques de colocation permettent aux jeunes d’échapper au déclassement résidentiel. En outre, ces pratiques sont présentées comme des moyens, certes de répondre à des difficultés économiques, mais également de construire leur identité en optant pour des modes de vie collectifs. Enfin, ces pratiques peuvent être, selon les jeunes, plutôt pensées comme des parenthèses en attendant une installation en couple ou bien comme des choix durables de modes de vie remettant en cause les normes dominantes du passage à l’âge adulte. En conclusion, l’article insiste sur le fait que les pratiques de colocation des jeunes peuvent être considérées comme des moyens pour les individus de construire leur identité dans un contexte d’incertitude et de risques de déclassement social et résidentiel des jeunes de classe moyenne

Introduction [ Dossier. La jeunesse dans les politiques locales : échelons de décision et partenariats ]

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