Challenging structured participation opportunities

This paper claims that young people interact more widely with societies where formal structures for engagement are too narrow. To be able to respond to such limitations, it is important to resist simple dualism (collectivist/individualist citizen, representative/participatory democracy, representative/direct, institutional/ non-institutional participation, party politics/life politics, conventional/social movement-related citizenship behaviour, modern adults/post-modern young, and so on) and recognise the pluralism and richness of democratic culture.

Analysing the state of participation requires recognising different manifestations of democracy and democratic engagement in the daily life of young people.