Beyond apathetic or activist youth: 'Ordinary' young people and contemporary forms of participation

Abstract

This article addresses the changing nature of participation for young people. Our analysis is framed by the fragmentation of traditional institutions and the increasingly unpredictable nature of life trajectories. As a result, the identification of a crisis in young people's engagement has become a recurrent theme in the literature, alongside a burgeoning interest in new forms of (sub)cultural participatory practices. We argue that there is further complexity in the reshaping of participation in times of social change, especially for a broad 'mainstream' of young people who are neither deeply apathetic about politics nor unconventionally engaged. Drawing on a research project with 970 young ..